Mass Effect: All in the Details
by DigitalHelix
Summary: A "Director's Cut" of the Mass Effect epic (more fleshed-out world, development of NPCs,) slowly veering off to an AU. Starts to seriously diverge near the end of ME2 (the geth know TIM is indoctrinated), but retains nearly all of a Paragon playthrough until after Cronos station. Medevac Jenkins...save Mordin AND the krogan...how an ardat-yakshi helped save the galaxy...and more!
1. Chapter 1: Inbound

A/N - Hello! And Welcome!

What made Mass Effect so enjoyable (IMO) was the character development, and my biggest gripe, even with ME2, was that it was a quarter of the story I thought it could/should have been. This whole exercise actually started as a series of extended conversations with Liara, and then a reimaging of the Dantius Towers Incident, the Ilos Landing, the Battle of the Shroud, some of what happened between ME1 and ME2, and so on. There's lots already written, but I'm releasing and rewriting it chronologically so it flows better...and because I don't know how long it will ultimately be. At the time of initial release (i.e., when I first started publishing chapters here,) I already have over 150,000 words invested.

As far as possible, I will stay with canon, even using bits of the comics and tie-in stories acknowledged or owned by BiowarEA.

(Soapbox: Yes, it was a flaming _Hindenburg_ of an ending. Don't even get me started. I've pushed nine Shepards from ME1 to ME3 and only played past Cronos station once. Blecch. But give 'em some slack. They're trying to _sell a product, _not make us happy with the story. I assume they decided to kill off Our Hero because they can't actually tell what the world would be like after such a thing took place _and_ make us care about it. Who would there be to fight with that would be as daunting as the reapers?  
>1) It's HARD to think credibly about the future. Consider some examples of people trying to imagine what the world will be like even thirty years from now. Remember <span>Back to the Future<span>? The world of 1985 may have been bizarre to someone from 1955, but 2015 would be nearly incomprehensible.  
>2) Imagine trying to write a good story about the world of 2015 to someone living in 1955, and it becomes easier to see how different we become over time. And we're changing faster. But that change can be alienating to those who grew up in "another world"...they have little understanding and no investment in such a story. How could they?)<p>

This story is also laced with acronyms and terminology that may be unfamiliar; turning a game into a world is complex, and involves some explaining and occasional rewriting. Sometimes a word, phrase, or acronym will be explained in context, but there's a glossary at the end of each chapter with the terms that appear in it (even if they've been used before,) because putting the unpacked term in the middle of the story not only messed with dialogue continuity, but story flow.

In terms of content rating, the bulk of the storytelling here is only meant to be a fun and harmless expansion of the ME world. Most language is only as bad as Star Wars ever got, though I'll try to be aware when it's not and change each chapter's rating accordingly. (True to form, Zaeed and Jack will be curling the wallpaper.) Realize we're dealing with soldiers here; anyone who's spent time in the military will appreciate that only Radio professionals are more casually profane. However, firefights are detailed and graphic...but this is Mass Effect, so it never gets that bad.

Also, love scenes are explicit, but I hope not overtly gratuitous. (I distinguish "love scenes" from "sex scenes.") And there aren't just three. Ultimately, this is about functional relationships; people who _genuinely care_ about each other...as friends, fellow soldiers, coworkers, and yes, lovers. As a complete story, however, this would be rated MA. In fact, as a movie, it would probably be rated NC-17.

This chapter is rated T for language; it all takes place aboard the _Normandy_ before the landing on Eden Prime.

***** Inbound *****

A countdown appeared on Shepard's Augmented Reality Overlay (ARO):

**3 … 2 … 1 …**

The blackness ended almost immediately, though the first impression was of being inside an alligator's mouth as it opened. There was also a very mechanical _kachlink-hissss_.

Memories rushed back into his awareness: The week of finalizing the new ship in drydock, a mission of which only the Captain had all the details, a crew of people the Captain had known over his career.

"Almost seems like a reunion show…but_ I'm_ not the Guest of Honor," Kaidan had chuckled during a bull session.

The Sleep Pod continued to tilt up, slowly putting pressure on the soles of his feet. He reached down to his hip pockets and checked for the QuickVert helmet and gloves. Years serving on starships had made it a habit; you never, _ever_ want to be without the ability to get into a pressurized biosuit.

His ARO winked a message from his Event Scheduler:

**Arm and equip for Combat Airdrop:  
><strong>**Eden Prime  
><strong>**60 minutes**

The first and last lines were expected, the second was new information. He stepped out of the tilted sleep pod, tapping a large holographic key to which his ARO had added, **Reset for next user**. The pod replied with an electronic chirp, and hummed back into place.

_Some expensive tech here for some pretty trivial details_, he thought. Still aware he was on the clock, he turned and walked aft down the short hall, which opened into the Main Mess.

Two people were sitting at one of the tables, talking and eating. Standing to his right as he stepped down from the sleep pods was a youngish, dark-haired man who was very focused on the small workbench with some technical-looking equipment.

"Kaidan…?"

At the sound of his name, the man looked up. "Hey, Commander." He tilted his head. "Are you okay? You look a little…wobbly."

Shepard tried to act nonchalant, realized it would be a mistake; Kaidan was highly aware of how people were feeling. "I…feel like I slept upside-down and backwards."

Alenko glanced toward the Mess. "Ouch. You want something to eat?"

Shepard paused thoughtfully. "You know…I've noticed that _eating _seems to be a solution you resort to a lot."

Kaidan shrugged as the door to the Captain's cabin hissed open. "Hey, it's my super-power."

"_Eating_ doesn't count as a super-power," Shepard deadpanned.

The Captain rounded the corner, stepping into the conversation. "It does for him," Captain Anderson glanced meaningfully toward the biotic. "Have you seen this guy pound it down?"

Kaidan grinned, but did not look up from his bench. "Don't knock it 'til you try it."

Anderson stepped up behind Alenko and looked over his shoulder. "How you doing, Leftenant? Ready for the drop?"

"I'm DIYing an upgrade from a type IV to a type V, and while the ship's recompiling my amp software, I've added some new tweaks. It should give me better duration with the same energy draw."

Anderson nodded approvingly, "That's my boy, working until the last possible second. I've always admired that." He looked at the men in turn. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to tell you more about the mission, but I think you're going to like it. You'll look back on it years from now and remember it proudly."

"An hour out, and you still can't tell us anything yet?" Shepard shook his head. "I just woke up with my VI telling me that we're landing on Eden Prime. Why the big secret?"

"It's…like Christmas," Anderson half-smiled. "Don't worry. It's good." He looked across the room at Shepard's locker, and seemed briefly to be somewhere else. His smile faded, and he turned away, batting Shepard playfully across the shoulder with a fist, "Especially for you." He continued aft to the elevator, disappeared around the corner.

They watched him go. "I wonder what _that_ was about," Kaidan puzzled. "He seemed kind of melancholy." He shrugged and touched a finger to the bridge of his nose, gesturing for his ARO to switch back to its AFM view. The orange-yellow holographic display appeared, obscuring his eyes.

"We'll know in an hour." Shepard leaned over Kaidan's techbench, watching him work on the exposed innards of the omnitool. "How close are you to finished?"

"I'm Ready-15 right now. But integration between tech and biotics can be very user-specific, so I'm using some of the ship's DCE to normalize it." He tapped his head with a free hand without looking up. "_Normandy_ sure has a lot of computing power. It's nice."

Shepard nodded approvingly. "Sure is. Well, if I can help, let me know."

"Thanks…this one's all me. There's still a significant installed L2 user base, and we swap new ideas when we get them." Alenko nodded his head at the flextronic device, "I'll let the new hardware mod air-cure while I have the time." He was silent for a moment, then added, "And I was thinking about what to eat before we land."

Shepard shook his head as he stepped over to his locker, carefully kicked the release near the floor. The locker sprang open. "You ever consider riching your mix?" He touched a control on the QuickVert fatigues and started pulling the pieces off, hanging them on the hooks inside the locker. "If you add some protein or glucose, you wouldn't have to eat as often."

Kaidan shrugged but kept working. "I would if I ever stopped enjoying recreational eating. Though I do carry a handful of boosters in the field."

"All right, as soon as I'm geared up, I'm going to make sure…um…_Jenkins_ is on the ball. Know where he is?"

"Not at the moment." Kaidan shook his head. "That kid…I swear he is so new, he leaves a trail of stryopeaunts."

"I keep thinking we'll find out why the Captain asked for him." Shepard had struggled into the undersuit layer, and was attaching the powered armor sections to his arms and legs in turn. He stopped suddenly and snapped his fingers. He pointed at Kaidan, "Eden Prime. _Jenkins is from Eden Prime_."

Kaidan looked up in realization, the ARO fading to transparency as he did. "How about that?" He nodded thoughtfully.

"And why we only have a drop squad of three. We must be meeting someone who knows the actual mission. Unless it's that turian." Fitting pieces of the armor on his legs, Shepard considered their turian visitor.

"He's a Council Spectre, isn't he?"

"That's what I heard. Kind of keeps to himself, though…" Holding the torso and abdomen assembly in place with both hands, Shepard kicked the locker trigger again. The door closed, holding the SmartPak and weapons; Shepard gripped his own torso plate and backed up to the locker. With a satisfying series of distinctive clicks and servo whines, the SmartPak clamped itself onto the rest of the armor. Shepard bent over, flexed his arms, and twisted his torso, coaxing the armor to snug itself into place with the range of motion he expected to use.

"It's kind of unusual for a turian. Normally, they're very team-oriented…well, sort of. It's all about the Honor of the Platoon, or the Division." Status lights appeared on Shepard's ARO, naming subsystems as they powered on and confirmed operational status. An array of green indicators filled the bottom of his visual field, and faded away.

Shepard continued, "But Nihlus hasn't said three words to me." He shrugged dramatically, "Me, the XO. Unless he's just a passenger…I feel like he's hiding something deliberately."

Kaidan tried to emulate Shepard's delivery, "'We'll know in an hour.'"

Shepard smiled with resignation. "That we will," he said, "But I'd rather be as ready as—"

"Lieutenant Alenko to the bridge," announced the Boatswain VI, "Lieutenant Alenko to the bridge, please."

"Break a leg," Shepard waved a thumb forward.

Rising from his workbench, Kaidan shook his head. "Still not funny." He turned and jogged aft, disappeared up the stairs.

Shepard walked over to the workbench and leaned over Alenko's omnitool, which was connected to a power supply and a service VI. The display over the GPC indicated that it was about 90% of the way through a test. Touching his left thumb to his left index finger illuminated his own omnitool gauntlet; he flipped through groups of tiles and selected one, pinched it, and touched the workbench.

**Test in Progress: Power Consumption versus Duration with and without upgrade**, read the display.

He spun the control past more options and function groups, displayed the interaction between biotic amp control and tech functionality.

Apparently the systems had some overlap, but not enough for operation of one to reduce the power of the other.

The voice of the Flight Officer sounded over the PA system, breaking Shepard from his reverie, "The Arcturus prime relay in range, initiating transmission sequence."

Another voice replied, "We are connected."

"Calculating transit mass and destination," said a third.

A text message appeared on Shepard's ARO: **Capt. Anderson: Can you be on the bridge for this jump? Nihlus is up there.**

_Gotta make us look like pros to the turian_, Shepard thought. He touched his left thumb to his middle finger tip, gesturing for a text message, "Captain: _Aye Aye, sir._" He turned and ran up the port stairs, taking them two at a time.

"Relay is hot, acquiring approach vector." Joker's voice continued over the shipwide, "All stations secure for transit."

The door scanned Shepard and let him on the CIC.

"Board is green." said the engineer's voice.

Joker's voice again: "Approach run has begun…we are in the pipe." Shepard jogged forward, exchanging glances with Pressley and dodging a rating, slowed to a walk as he reached the top of the steps. As he approached the cockpit, noting the window covers were closed, he stopped, unconsciously squinting in preparation for the jump. "Hitting the relay in three…two…one…"

There was a flash of black.

Joker's postjump announcement was an anchor to reality. "Thrusters…check. Navigation…check. Internal emissions sink…engaged. All systems online. Drift…just under 1500K."

The turian nodded once. "1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased." He turned and strode purposefully away.

When the alien was out of earshot, Joker muttered, "I hate that guy."

Kaidan looked quizzically at the pilot from the weapons station. "Nihlus gave you a compliment…so…you hate him."

"You remember to zip up your jumpsuit on your way out of the bathroom, that's 'good.' I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of _that guy's brain_." He raised his finger and thumb toward Kaidan, held only a millimeter apart. "That's not 'good,' that's _frickincredible_." He put his hand back on the armrest. "Besides, Spectres are trouble; I don't like having him aboard. Call me paranoid."

Kaidan shrugged good-naturedly, "Okay, 'You're paranoid.' The Council helped fund the construction of this ship, they've paid for the privilege of sending someone along to watch out for their investment."

"Yup. That is the _official_ story. Only an idiot believes the official story."

Shepard nodded to himself. "I think he's got you there, LT. You don't send Spectres on _shakedown flights_." He tapped Joker's headrest. "But unless they give us a reason to distrust or dislike them, you _are_ being paranoid. And unpleasant."

"What…? I didn't say any of that stuff to his face. And how about the fact that _nobody's told us anything about this mission yet_? I think that's an excellent reason not to trust 'em. We don't go anywhere unless there's a good reason, and that goes double for Spectres. So what are we doin—"

"Joker," the Captain's voice interrupted from the board, "Gimme the sitrep."

The pilot leaned forward just a bit, spoke fractionally louder, "Just cleared the mass relay, Captain. Stealth systems engaged per your order. Cruising speed for Eden Prime, I put our ETA at…thirty-one minutes to AFG. Everything looks solid."

"Good. Find a comm buoy and link us into the network. I want mission reports relayed back to Trident before we hit ground."

"Aye aye, sir." Joker touched two fingers to his left ear. "Gladdy? Get us talking to Trident. Captain wants them knowing what's happening without asking."

"Connecting to network now," answered the communications officer.

Joker nodded, glanced aft again. "Uh…better brace yourself, sir. I think Nihlus is headed your way."

The Captain sounded like he was talking through his teeth, "Not unless he's figured out how to get behind the drive core without crawling outside the ship."

"Oh...uh...then I suppose you're safe for the moment."

"In a relative sense. Did Shepard ever get there?"

Shepard leaned toward the pickup, "Right here, sir."

"Commander, after I get done here, I want you to meet me in the Comm room. I need to brief you for the mission."

"I'll be there, sir." The comm chirped as the channel closed. "The skipper sounds upset," Shepard turned to go. "I hope nothing's gone wrong."

"He always sounds like that when _I'm_ talking to him," Joker said.

Kaidan made a face as if thinking hard. "I can't imagine why."

**# # #**

Shepard headed aft. He could hear the Chief Navigator and Chief Engineer on the 'comm. "I just saw him…he marched past like he was on a mission."

"He's a _Spectre_; they're _always_ on a mission."

"And we're getting dragged right along with him."

"Relax. Charlie, you're gonna give yourself an ulcer."

Pressley shook his head, "Had it. Fixed it. Alliance paid for it."

"Heh…you, too? Aw…don't worry. Captain won't let anything bad happen."

The Navigator seemed to become aware of Shepard's presence. "I hope you're right. Nav out." He waved a finger through the holographic toggle, and turned to face Shepard. He saluted, "Congratulations, Commander. Looks like we had a smooth run. You heading down to see the Captain?"

"I am indeed." Shepard returned the salute. "It sounds like you don't trust our turian guest?"

"Sorry, Commander, just having a chat with Greg Adams down in engineering. But you have to admit there's something odd about this mission. The whole crew feels it."

"Think HQ is holding out on us?" He shrugged, tried to act unconcerned. "We may not Need To Know. Not the way _I'd_ do it...but it's not my command. You don't have a problem with the Captain, do you?"

"Not a chance. Served with him for years. He's one of the most decorated soldiers in the ASF. I'll bet if he melted down all his medals and citations, he could build a life-sized statue of himself." Pressley squinted thoughtfully. "But you don't send a soldier like that on a _do-nothing_ mission. And he's taking this way too seriously; something big is going down."

Shepard pressed him, "Think the shakedown thing is just a cover?"

Pressley, arms folded, nodded his agreement. "Do the math. If all we're supposed to do is test out the drive and stealth systems, why send a Spectre…a _turian_ Spectre…on a human ship? These are the guys that leave _double-digit body counts_ everywhere they show up." He scowled. "I'm not a fan of being left in the dark. Especially with someone like that."

"You don't like Nihlus?"

Pressley shrugged. "I don't like turians on principle. My father fought in the First Contact War. Lost a lot of friends when the turians hit us." He waved a hand dismissively, "I know; Nihlus wasn't even born. That's why I say "on principle.'"

"Individuals are accountable for their own actions," Shepard agreed. "I know what you mean, though. Have you seen the equipment he brought?"

"No," Pressley said thoughtfully, "And neither have you…unless you've developed X-ray vision. Those crates are still sealed."

"Yeah," Shepard looked down at himself. "And it makes me feel like I'm underdressed." He shrugged. "If he's not gonna bust that stuff out now, when did he plan to?" He waved it off, "Captain said to prep for airdrop, Full Armor. I'm on my way to see him now."

"Maybe you'll find out what we're really doing."

"Well, just stay alert. You might find out. Or maybe I will."

Pressley looked back at the CIC console. "Well, good luck, Commander."

"Thanks." Shepard continued aft.

As he approached the Command dais, he heard Corporal Richard Jenkins, the relatively inexperienced soldier, and Doctor Karin Chakwas, the ship's Chief Flight Surgeon, talking. Richard was his usual bubbly self, "…I grew up on Eden Prime, Doc. It's just not the sort of place Spectres visit. It's a sleepy little colony world. There's nothing there but a shining example of an Alliance-backed settlement. Something here stinks."

Chakwas shook her head, squinting. "That's crazy. The Captain is in charge here. He doesn't take orders from Council Spectres."

Richard hunched his shoulders, as though hiding behind a large collar, and held up his hands as if grasping, "It could be some kind of covert operation; Captain might be under orders to deliver the turian somewhere and pick him up when he calls. Even _he_ may not know what the mission is about. And this Nihlus guy is _antimatter_. I heard he took down an entire enemy platoon all by himself!"

"Corporal, it is my professional opinion that you have watched entirely too many episodes of _Updater_."

Richard smiled as Shepard approached, "What do you think, Commander? We're not going to be stuck on Eden Prime too long, are we? I'm itching for some real action."

Chakwas folded her arms, "I sincerely hope you're kidding, Corporal. Your 'real action' usually ends with me patching up crew members in the infirmary."

"And me having to write letters home to _new widows and grieving families_," Shepard said grimly. "You need to calm down, Corporal. _Expert_ stays calm, even under fire. And we are not under fire."

"Sorry, sir. But the waiting is killing me. I've never been on a mission with a _Spectre_ on board. Heck, hardly anyone has!"

Shepard settled back on his heels a bit, and breathed. "Just treat this with the professionalism and decorum that you want to have on your record, and you'll do fine."

"Easy for you to say. You're the hero of the Blitz. Everyone knows what _you_ can do. This is my big chance. I need to show the brass what _I_ can do!"

Shepard locked eyes with the Corporal. "You think that was my first mission? This isn't about scoring points in a game, Corporal. You're about to put your life on the line because you believe there's a worthwhile reason to do so. But you are putting the lives of everyone in the squad in _danger_ if you think this is about being a hero."

"Don't worry, sir. I'm not going to screw this up!" He glanced at Chakwas, saluted Shepard, looking as focused and serious as he could.

Shepard tried to put it in perspective. "We have a job to do. Don't think of it as _not doing your worst_…think of how you _can do your best_." He returned Jenkin's salute with a reassuring smile, "You're young. You have your whole life ahead of you."

"And what a way to start it," Jenkins grinned at Chakwas again, "A mission with a _Spectre_. What an adventure!"

Shepard's smile fell; he took a breath, held it for a moment. He muttered, "So many painful lessons to learn…"

Suddenly, he looked down at Jenkins' collar and squinted as if he saw something on it.

Jenkins looked down at his tunic as Shepard reached out his left finger and thumb as if to pick some stray bit of debris off the younger man's clothes, and then very carefully – almost surgically – gathered most of Jenkins' shirt in a fist, gently pressed him against the nearest bulkhead, full eye contact.

In the two or three seconds it had taken to do this, he mustered every memory of those he's lost, and the pain – never gone, just ignored – of their deaths. _Laura, Rex, Kirk, Kathy, Harriet, Roland, Phoebe, Dean, Ray, Artie, Hal, Bill, Ruth_…tears welled in his eyes, reddening them…_Ernie, Robert, Steve, Dorothy, Chere, Fitz, Esther, Dan…_

Jenkins' eyes grew large as he found himself with no escape. But his expression changed subtly as he made eye contact: _Shepard was in pain._

Shepard spoke, his voice a raspy whisper, "Rich, listen really closely, because I'm only gonna say this about a billion times." He struggled to keep his voice from cracking, paused for effect. "The team. Always. Comes. First. No One…gets left behind. If aborting a mission will _save your life_, I'll do it. Every. Damn. Time." He brought his right hand up, index finger extended and knifelike. "And so will _you_. Any questions?"

Jenkins' mouth opened, but no words came out.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard could see Chakwas looking like she was not believing what she was seeing. The XO was right on the edge of assaulting a fellow soldier.

He continued, enunciating each word carefully, "The loss of a life is something that _cannot be undone_. We do so as a _last resort_. If someone dies, we have _failed_. Maybe it _was_ provoked. Maybe _they_ even started it. But the reason my squad always includes a medic is because killing is not what we are there to do. We save_ everyone_. Even the bad guys, if we can. Don't shoot to _kill_…if you injure an enemy, you take _him_ out of the fight, plus the guy who has to pull him to safety and treat his injury." As he spoke, he had slowly pushed himself away from Jenkins and now had him at arm's length. "Any questions?"

"S…sir?"

"Corporal, do you have any questions I might be able to answer about this SOP that I expect you to follow while you're posted to the _Normandy_?"

"Sir, No, sir!"

"Outstanding, Corporal." Shepard released Jenkins, straightening out the younger man's uniform, took a breath, let it out. "However, I realize that you might not think of everything at this particular moment, so _if you think of a question later_, or if you'd like to _talk through a scenario_, please message me."

He took a step back. "It's important that you know not just _what_ we're doing, but _why_ we're doing it. Then you're better equipped to function on your own, even if I'm not available to tell you what happens next. It also builds trust, and that's something we cannot succeed without." Shepard snapped a salute, which Jenkins answered instantly. "Carry on."

As Shepard stalked around the corner, he bared his teeth at his own behavior. _Unprofessional_, he thought. _But new guys always think it won't happen to them,_ he argued with himself. _There is nothing glorious in death._

As he stepped over to the Comm Room, he heard Chakwas say, "I hope you didn't join the Alliance so you could kill bug-eyed monsters, Corporal…"

**# # #**

The door hissed open, and Shepard saw only the Spectre. Armored in black and red, and studying the holographic display at the back of the room, Nihlus glanced back and said, "Commander Shepard. I was hoping you'd get here first. It will give us a chance to talk."

Shepard eased into the room as the door closed behind him. "Sure…about what?"

The turian seemed taller than when they'd met on the bridge. "I'm interested in this world we're going to…Eden Prime. I've heard it's quite beautiful."

"Never seen it myself. But Jenkins was born there." He waved a thumb over his shoulder, "Want me to call him in? He could probably bore you to tears about it."

"That's not necessary; I'm more interested to hear what _you_ know about it." The turian turned back to the data scrolling past on the main display.

Shepard thought back to meals with Jenkins when he got to hear about such things. When he put a hand to his chin in thought – which signaled his VI – it responded by running up a quick list of his discussion topics with Jenkins and superimposed it into his visual field. "The system had been located about a hundred years ago by space telescopes, so there was a lot known about it before the Alliance even existed. The star is about half the age of Sol, and the planet with our colony is what they call a "princess" planet...it's not only in the 'goldilocks zone,' it's got more oxygen, richer soil, and a population just under four million."

"Right now, it's just a Level Two colony, largely funded by Colonial Admin, but self-sufficient since 2178. I understand the native microflora and fauna were similar enough to Earth's that they have brought in lots of plants and animals from home. So far, almost all of them have integrated into the local ecology successfully. They're using locally-designed fcRNA to mod the rest.

"They actually _grow_ a lot of their food instead of mining and printing it. Not just plants, but animals. Bison, mammoth, palorchies. I understand somebody's experimenting with dinosaurs, too…Earth's paleo-mega-fauna. All of which makes for an unusually self-sufficient colony. Jenkins seems to think that eating 'real steak' is enough of a luxury they'll be able to build an economy around it in the coming years. I'm not a huge fan of the stuff, myself…so I don't know. But it _is_ an easy stop when bouncing through the relays if it turns out he's right, and I _would _actually try a 'Brontoburger' if I had the chance.

"Every colonist family has a 1200 millimeter extrusion fabber and H-K omnitools even though they're not first-on-the-grounders. I'm a heavy user of omnitech, and I think that's a publicity stunt…Hahne-Kedar doesn't _make_ omnitools. I think they're just rebranding last year's entry-level Aldrin, but it seems to be going over well with the colonists. They have realtime PVR, local and interstellar exabit.

"Of course, they've probably got some culturespin that's unique, but for the purposes of this operation – what I know of it – I don't think that's anything to worry about." Shepard took another step toward the display. "Were you listening for something in particular? My info on it is skewed because of my source." He smiled, but was careful not to show teeth.

Nihlus didn't look away from the holograph. "I was considering the larger picture. It's become something of a symbol for your people. Proof that humanity can not only _establish_ colonies across the galaxy, but also _protect_ them. But how safe is it really?"

_Is this guy actually trying to provoke me?_ Shepard wondered. He paused to consider his answer; how to remind this Council agent that the Alliance would tolerate no terrorism. "As safe as _Elysium_," he folded his arms across his chest. If this turian Spectre knew anything about Elysium, he would surely know that Shepard was largely responsible for it still being there. "Do you know something I don't?"

"Your people are newcomers to the galactic stage, Shepard. It can be very dangerous out here. Are your people really ready for this?"

"For what…to leave our planetary cradle? We already have. But we're not going to be ready if you're deliberately keeping us in the dark." Shepard paused, took a breath. "Sorry, it's been a few months since I was part of a turian operation. You're probably painting the grimmest picture and expecting we'll just stoically 'die for duty.'" He shook his head, "Humans aren't like that, and they don't like being _treated_ like that."

The door hissed open again. Neither of them took his eyes off the other to see who it was.

**# # #**

Anderson saw his XO's body language, and decided to stop the discussion before it actually got unpleasant. "Sorry I'm late," Anderson was shaking his head, "Galley's having power supply problems, and the engineers would rather play with their new engines."

"Captain," Shepard turned and smiled faintly.

Anderson sighed. "I think it's time we told the Commander what's really going on."

"This is far more than a simple shakedown run," Nihlus sounded almost conspiratorial, "We're making a covert pickup on Eden Prime. That's why we needed the stealth systems."

Anderson added, "It's a fairly lightweight way to check them out under actual operating conditions. The Alliance can review the municipal system records after we leave and see if we actually left any kind of signature."

Shepard nodded. "Hm. Safer than testing in combat, in case something fails, not as insulting to the Alliance if the operators don't detect us." He turned and studied the alien. "But why are _you_ here?"

Anderson answered, "A geological survey team found something when they were mapping strata. Something technological. They were discreet enough to contact the Alliance first, instead of Colonial Admin, and we sent another team to recover it. It's the biggest piece of intact Prothean technology since the find on Mars in '48."

Shepard paused to think about the implications. "Protheans? That's incredible. I remember when the Mars finds started to become public. Among other things, it jumped our technology forward…" he shook his head, "Two hundred years. Is this bigger or smaller? And why does it need to be a secret?"

Anderson was suddenly intense, "Must be smaller, or they wouldn't have sent the _Normandy_. As for why it's a secret…well…Nihlus, would you care to elaborate? I must confess I'm also curious. And we're close enough to Eden Prime that – as Captain of this boat – I think I'm about done _not knowing_."

The turian nodded. "I can't tell you everything…there isn't time, and some of it is classified for other reasons. But I can tell you that I personally have intel about at least one other organization that wants this artifact _very much_. Worse, I have reason to believe that even the Spectres may have been compromised…to the extent that the existence of this artifact is now known to this other organization. Thus it is important that we be both quiet and quick."

Shepard exchanged a glance with Anderson. "Can you tell us who? Or what sort of interaction we should expect?"

Nihlus' field of vision allowed him to read the display on the inside of his collar; it listed organizations with which these two humans were known to have any affiliation. He thought, _Your people may not even know about the Collectors yet, and you might be part of Cerberus yourself._

"If we're discreet, we won't have any," the turian said. "If they know about it, they will likely try to take it by force. That's why you are an excellent choice: If this turns into a firefight, I will be able to see your skills for myself. If it gets really bad, I will be able to back you up. Ideally, it won't come to that. But I've brought equipment that will change the game if there is a significant disparity. I won't let the mission fail."

Anderson faced the holodisplay, hands behind his back, but spoke to Shepard, "This comes right from the top. The Alliance wants this thing safe, and the Council has offered to give our scientists access to labs that can help…in exchange for any data we recover." He turned to Shepard. "But Nihlus isn't just here for the beacon. He's also here to evaluate you…as a Spectre candidate."

Shepard blinked. Then he blinked again, squinted at Anderson, and pointed at himself. "Spectre candidate? Me?"

Anderson nodded. "The Alliance has been pushing for this for a long time. Humanity wants a larger role in shaping interstellar policy. They want more pull with the Council, and the Spectres represent the Council's power and authority. If they accept a human into their ranks, it shows how far we've come."

Nihlus stepped closer, "You held off an enemy assault single-handed during the Blitz. That showed not only noteworthy courage and skill, but resourcefulness. That's why I put your name forward as a candidate for the Spectres."

_This is no time to remind people that I didn't do it alone_, Shepard thought. "_You_ did? Why would a turian want a human in the Spectres?"

"Not all turians resent humanity. Some of us see the potential of your species. We can see what you offer to the galaxy, and to the Spectres. We are an elite group. It's rare to find an individual with the skills we seek. I don't care that you're human, Shepard. I only care that you can get the job done."

"That's almost reassuring." Shepard turned back to Captain Anderson. "I assume this is good for the Alliance?"

Anderson nodded sagely. "Earth needs this. We're counting on you."

"No pressure, though," Shepard grinned slightly; Anderson looked away sheepishly. "There a reason you didn't tell me about this, sir?"

Anderson looked at him again, "Wasn't my call. I endorsed you in the selection process, but I didn't know if you got it until the Spectre Office contacted me and made arrangements to accommodate Agent Nihlus here."

Nihlus nodded, "I need to see your skills for myself, Commander. Eden Prime will be the first of several missions together."

Anderson pointed to the holographic map. "You'll be in charge of the ground team. Secure the Beacon and get it onto the ship quickly and quietly. Nihlus will accompany you and observe the mission from a remote location."

Shepard turned to Nihlus, "Are you expecting trouble?"

"I always expect trouble," the turian answered.

Shepard scowled. "That's no answer. Do you have relevant intel on this situation or location that you think will be important to mission success?"

Nihlus tipped its head forward slightly, curled one claw into a fist. Shepard recalled – and the ARO indicated – that this was a turian gesture of approval and encouragement. "Good. You won't be bullied into a blunder." The turian clasped its claws behind its waist. "In fact, no. I don't have any more directly-related info. But this is the sort of mission a Spectre would be involved with, so it's a good opportunity for me to see how you work. Will you have underlings, or are you going to do this solo?"

Shepard paused. "I don't run a mission alone if I think I can do it better or safer as _part of a team_. There's even a human proverb to that effect. 'Two can prevail against one...'"

"…and a three-fold cord is not easily broken," the turian finished, "Very good." He turned to the Captain. "I think he'll do."

Anderson nodded. "You ready to go, Commander?"

Shepard saluted confidently at his skipper. "I'll make it happen, Cap'n."

Gladstone's voice interrupted over the PA, "Captain, we've got a problem."

"What's wrong?"

"Transmission from Eden Prime, sir. You need to see this."

"Pipe it down here, Gladdy."

The holographic display lit, the image hissing and crackling, tilting wildly as the camera did. A soldier in white armor was firing at something offscreen left. Whoever it was ran toward the camera and shouted, "Get down!" and shoved the camera as if it were paparazzi. The sound of nearby gunfire was continuous.

The video stuttered and jumped; another soldier in camo greens was trying to get a signal out. His hand was to his ear as he said, "We are under attack, taking heavy casualties, I repeat, heavy casualt—"

The signal switched to another source, and then back.

"We can't…" —static— "We need evac!" More gunfire and chaos, the image filled with noise.

Another voice, off-camera, "They came outta nowhere, we—" There was a brief burst of noise, almost a musical note, modulating and flanging as the image thrashed wildly—

_black_

"That's it, the signal just cut out," the Comms Officer reported, "It's not being jammed, it's just _gone_."

Anderson stepped up to the console in front of the display, "Did you record it?"

Gladstone's voice answered, "Yes, sir. Linking to the CommCon now."

Anderson worked the controls, scrubbing the image back and forth until he found what he wanted: A black shape, looking disturbingly like a hand, surrounded by smoke and lightning. The image offered no sense of scale or distance.

He stepped back and studied it. "Now what the hell's that?"

Nihlus said nothing; both mandibles twitched once.

_What does_ that _mean?_ Shepard wondered. His ARO offered no info.

Anderson was not pleased. "Outstanding," he glared at Nihlus. "Joker. How long until we hit the Drop Zone?"

"Nineteen minutes, present speed, sir."

"Make flank speed; get us there as fast as you safely can."

"Flank speed, aye, sir!" All three felt the compensators bend the shipboard gravity as Joker accelerated.

Anderson turned to Shepard. "Commander, this mission just got a lot hotter. It may now be the most important mission in your career. Something or someone is landing what looks like an invasion on this little garden world at exactly the time we're trying to get an important find off it…and the Spectres don't know who it is or why they're here." He glanced accusingly at the turian.

"I wish I could send you in with more. Go get Jenkins and Alenko suited up. You've got twelve minutes…maybe fifteen…to get to the hangar, ready for drop."

"Yes, sir," Shepard saluted quickly, and headed for the door while illuminating his omnitool. "Alenko, Jenkins, Code Red drop in ten minutes. LZ is hot, friendlies are under fire. This is not a drill. I repeat: Code Red Drop in—" The door hissed closed behind him.

Nihlus turned to exit as well, but was stopped when Anderson held up a hand in front of him. The turian turned only his head to look at the human curiously.

Anderson kept his eyes on his own hand, fingertips lightly pressed against the smooth turian armor. "Spectre, I don't know the full extent of your agenda here, or your relevant knowledge. But if I find you have deliberately set my crew up to fail and die by withholding relevant information…" He made eye contact, "I will not forget. And I will not be silenced."

"Captain Anderson," the Spectre purred, "If I knew anything and withheld it from my allies, I would have to be a traitor or a fool. I can assure you…I did not get to where I am…by being either."

***** Glossary *****

AFG: Atmospheric Flight Geometry

AFM: Atomic Force Microscope; a hybrid device developed in the 1980s allowing both observation and manipulation of individual atoms. VI-enhanced AFMs are frequently used in modification and repair of nanotech devices.

ARO: Augmented Reality Overlay

ASF: Alliance Special Forces

CommCon: Communications/Conference room. Also "Comm Room."

DCE: Distributed Computing Environment. VDI (Virtualized Data Infrastructure) systems evolved into entire computing environments as data storage and active memory merged with the advent of memristors, and then with an active computing storage model with "computronium."

DIY: Do It Yourself

fcRNA: fast-coding RNA (Ribonucleic Acid)

GPC: General Purpose Computer. Some computing systems are left "freestanding" from local DCE for security or financial reasons

PVR: Polyphase Virtual Reality

Ready-15: A state of alertness; Ready-15 means you are ready to hit the dirt, guns blazing, in fifteen minutes. There are also modifications of this (e.g. "Ready-5, Ready-10, Ready-30, etc.)

Sitrep: Situation Report

SmartPak: an integrated weapons carrier worn as the back panel for compatible standard armor types. Active hardpoint controllers are linked to standard combat VIs so that a soldier has only to reach for the weapon for it to unlock and begin decompaction. Also automatically connects to weapons and allows them to finish compaction when being secured.

SOP: Standard Operating Procedure

Trident: Name of Alliance Operational Headquarters

_Updater_: An action-adventure-sexploitation show about an asari Spectre


	2. Chapter 2: Not on My Watch

A/N - This chapter is conservatively Rated M for some mature content and a firefight. Lots of technical detail about battlefield medicine in 2183.

***** Not on My Watch *****

Joker's voice echoed through the hangar, "Over Drop Point One in sixty seconds. Ready for Hangar door open." The forward end of the hangar clanked and growled as an orangeish light began to shine in.

Shepard had just finished inspecting Jenkins' and Alenko's suits when Anderson's hand was on his shoulder. "Your team is the muscle in this operation."

"That's what _I'm_ talkin' about," Jenkins agreed.

"What about survivors, Captain?"

"The Beacon is your top priority. Looking for survivors is secondary."

Shepard frowned. "Sounds like they're _dying_ down there, Captain."

Jenkins turned suddenly. "Survivors? What?"

"I know," Anderson nodded, "But that should tell you how valuable this thing is. The Colony isn't our primary mission; we don't have the manpower for it. We're just here for the beacon. I've called Trident, forwarded the transmission we picked up. But it's good that we're here before they've had a chance to take the beacon from us, too. Get the beacon safely back to the _Normandy_, and then we'll deploy SAR." Anderson folded his arms across his chest. "Since this could be a First Contact situation, the usual stuff applies, but since it looks like they've already engaged, you're authorized to use Deadly Force, your discretion."

Shepard could see Jenkins becoming agitated. He took a deep breath, exhaled, and nodded. "Dubyenski, Lowe, and Crosby are qualified CFR One and Two. I know they're off shift, but they're not Sleeping. If you can get them on the ground…"

"It'd be the right thing to do," Anderson agreed, "Though it could foul up our departure. But I'll see if they're up for it." He shrugged. "If I know Crosby, we'll have more trouble getting _him_ back aboard than you."

"Probably." Shepard grinned, "I don't know what Chakwas will do if she ever loses him." He nodded at Anderson, clacked the ammoblock into place on his rifle, and lit up the electronics. "We'll get that Beacon, sir."

"Ten seconds to drop," the Loadmaster's unamplified voice came from aft and still managed to fill the cavernous hangar. "Team One, gear up!"

Jenkins eyed the Spectre suspiciously. "Nihlus, you comin' with us?"

"I move faster on my own," the turian answered, looking up from his weapon but not making eye contact. He jogged up to the end of the loading ramp and leapt out.

"He's not part of your mission, Corporal," Anderson spoke over the wind noise, "He'll scout out ahead, and feed you status reports throughout the mission. Otherwise, I want radio silence between you and him."

Shepard nodded, "Expert, Ready and able, sir."

Anderson nodded grimly, looking where the Spectre had just disappeared.

"Drop Two in ten seconds," called the Loadmaster, "Team Two, gear up!"

Shepard held his hand, palm up, between Alenko and Jenkins. He shouted, "Are we ready?"

Alenko got his hand in first, Jenkins put his hand on theirs. "We were _born_ ready!" They answered together. They raised their joined hands a few centimeters and then quickly dropped them as Shepard shouted, "Go, go, go!" He turned and ran to the end of the loading ramp, and leapt the 300 meters or so to the ground. The MEFGs in his dropsuit activated on the way down, slowing his descent.

Each suit's four generators used the same tiny amounts of element zero, but put a huge power draw on the suit. This kept costs down, but it meant the generators failed regularly. Any two were enough to assure a controlled landing, and one was enough to allow survivability. Each dropsuit was linked to the user's ARO so they'd know on the way down if they needed help from another diver.

Shepard saw that both Jenkins and Alenko had failed generator three. This was not uncommon for right-handed divers, because it was the most heavily encumbered, but it was annoying to have them both fail _now_. His own suit started to slow his fall, as the two other men steered over to flank him. As he watched, Alenko's suit failed generator two as well.

Jenkins' voice was in Shepard's "radio ears," "You seein' this, sir?"

"You'll be fine," he answered, "This is a real short drop, and we're almost there."

"View from up high is bad," Alenko said as he touched down. "Three firefights that I could see, and damage to two of the SRN towers."

Serbrook-Regal Nanofacture ("SRN") had designed the NewTower series of self-assembling skyscrapers that was finding a lot of success in the colony market. The _Normandy_ had dropped them so they were facing into the sun, with three of the 70-story buildings in view. Shepard's ARO informed him that this variant had internal waste processing and UPS [Uninterruptible Power Supplies], collector arrays on all the sun-facing surfaces, and it could comfortably house and support over 900 people. It also deployed using local materials, and was "self-steering" in terms of its orientation, optimizing for weather and sun patterns (which had to be entered at startup by a user or VI.)

_I hope they have automated Fire Control_, Shepard thought grimly.

Nihlus, not subject to Anderson's radio silence order, seemed to think it worthwhile to provide info to Team Two. "This place got hit hard, Commander. Hostiles are everywhere. Keep your guard up."

As Shepard pulled his rifle off his SmartPak, his ARO switched to Combat Mode. Since there were no targets present, it simply began providing range and vector data on wherever his attention focused.

Jenkins, who had hit the ground running, was standing despondently at the edge of the cliff. "Oh, god…what happened here?"

"Smells like smoke and death," Kaidan added.

Shepard tapped a key on his forearm and the helmet sealed itself into Hardsuit mode. Even though Eden Prime was a garden world, and a reportedly pleasant one at that, sealing their suits allowed them to talk to each other without being overheard acoustically. He made eye contact with his teammates and tapped his sealed helmet. It would also protect them in case the enemy was using chemical agents.

"We saw part of a transmission just as we were on final," Shepard told Jenkins as the other two men's suits reconfigured into Hardsuit mode, "I'm sorry you didn't get to see it. Looked like the local troops were taking a beating. We don't know who's responsible yet," Shepard compared the ARO with the rifle's local display. "Alright, light 'em up. Stay frosty. Don't die." He turned and started away from the distant buildings and was followed, first by Alenko, and then more reluctantly by Jenkins.

They were partway across the swamp when the suit showed motion at 25 meters. Shepard, on point, motioned for a stop. The ARO showed the target's relative location; it wasn't moving fast, and it wasn't heading for them. Shepard checked his suit's status. "Hey, remember to go to active camo." He switched his own on, and the suit VI painted camouflage on their suits as Shepard pointed left and right to cover. The two other men moved silently to the places he'd indicated.

From his location, Shepard saw it first, Kaidan saw it next. Even as alien as it looked, the slow-moving organic balloon creature simply wasn't threatening; it was almost comical. It was hard to tell if the Lieutenant was stunned, or just exasperated. "What the hell's that?"

"Gasbags," Jenkins said, suddenly feeling like the know-it-all. "Me and my sister used to hunt them. Called them 'Politicians!' Mom though it was funny, but dad made us stop."

"Are they toxic? Or dangerous?"

"No, but they're really chewy, and there's not much edible tissue. They're filled with hydrogen…I think…so they make a nice big explosion if you set fire to…"

"Alright, quiet," Shepard interrupted. "You guys haven't seen what we're up against, but I have. This is serious, and I need you to stay focused."

"Sorry, sir."

A glint of metal caught the attention of the suit camera, and Shepard's ARO called it out. "Hold. Something to the south." Bringing the weapon to his shoulder changed his ARO view to what the rifle scope saw. "Looks like…something electronic." He stepped closer, weapon still trained on the unknown device. When the suit VI identified it, it highlighted the silhouette, and tagged a label to it. The information showed up on all their AROs:

**SHIELD GENERATOR, ELKOSS COMBINE  
><strong>**RFID SN: SY12-WW18-812X-4148  
><strong>**DATE OF MANUFACTURE: CE297.02182.**

"A shield generator," Jenkins read. "And not too old. Looks like it still has power."

"Somebody must have dropped it," Alenko stood, lowering his pistol.

Shepard continued his slow approach, waiting for his modified suit VI to run a series of tests on it. If it was a disguised mine, it needed to be destroyed. If it really was a shield generator, it was a valuable find.

The VI's analysis agreed with the RFID.

Shepard aimed a few centimeters to the side of it and fired a single shot. Dust erupted into the air, and the cigar-sized generator rolled away from it. "I'm calling it safe," Shepard said. He approached, picked it up, and examined it. Rolling it between his hands, he worked the dirt off and held it up for them to see. "Who's got the lowest-powered shields? I'm at 150-980."

"120-920 for me," said Richard.

"Sounds like he gets it," said Kaidan.

Jenkins reached for the generator module, and stopped halfway. "Wait. What are you at?"

"_Lieutenant_," Alenko said with a meaningful look.

"Awww, I don't know about that. You may be a biotic, but you're just as vulnerable to hostile fire as anyone."

"We don't have _time_ for this," Shepard put a hand on Alenko's shoulder and spun him around. The generator module slipped into place on the backclip and lit briefly to indicate successful integration. "And you lost a second generator on final. I'd bet real money you had to use some biotics to slow your descent."

"Thanks, Commander." Alenko managed to sound both relieved and annoyed.

"You don't _mess_ with the Richard J.," Jenkins strutted like Inky Blinky, a popular performer with animated LED tattoos. "None of this _takin' one for Rich_ crap." As Shepard stepped between them on his way east, Jenkins tweaked the controls on his rifle, set off after Shepard.

"Guess not," Kaidan relented, and brought up the rear.

They backtracked across the swamp and up a small rise, where they found two burned bodies were prone across a rock, faintly smoking. Jenkins started to run to them, then drew up suddenly.

He gasped. "They're…dead!"

Shepard frowned. Dead they were, and beyond his immediate help. He gestured to his suit VI to stop showing sensor data on them, then pulled a handheld device off his belt and sprayed the head orifices with Nanotech Neurological Preservative (NNP.) The bodies might well be beyond healing, but the neurological structure could be protected from further deterioration. With the proper tech, the personalities could be largely reconstructed. The families would have the option. It was the last resort, but it was the best he could offer.

"What are you doing?" It was hard to tell if Richard was disturbed or just confused.

"I'm protecting their brains against further damage," Shepard explained as he replaced the NNP pack, "We have the technology to build human bodies, or at least most of them, and in case the family doesn't want to let them stay dead—"

"But they're…they're in heaven now," Richard was wide-eyed, "You can't save them!"

"Death isn't an event, it's a process…" Kaidan started to explain.

"And they're at the end of it," Richard pointed a trembling finger at them, "These are just…just _husks_, the people are gone!"

Shepard and Alenko exchanged a glance. Shepard rose from a crouch. "And there's nothing else we can do here."

"We can notify the next of kin," Jenkins said, pointing at the bodies, "Do they have any ID on them? RFIDs or cybernetics? Are their omnitools—"

"There's nothing else we can do here," Shepard repeated, "A proper medical team will have to handle this. _We_ are on a mission. Victor Indigo, mark the location and send a notice to the local 911 network. Sign my name." The suit VI displayed its instructions on the ARO to let him confirm them with a gesture. "Jenkins. We have to go." Shepard started north, away from the bodies.

Shepard performed a digit flick and the ARO displayed its rear view in a translucent window. Jenkins was following, but he kept glancing back at the bodies. They hadn't gone twenty meters before they found another. Shepard positioned his body to block Jenkins' view, quickly dropped to one knee, sprayed the head orifices with NNP, and issued another command to his suit VI. He wasn't quite fast enough.

"Why are you still doing that?" Richard sounded somehow angry and offended, "They're _dead_."

Standing again, Shepard turned to Jenkins. "Remember that stuff I told you about _the team always comes first_?"

From his deer-in-the-headlights expression, it was obvious he did. "Yes, sir…" He took a step back.

Shepard pointed at the fallen body, "Because we weren't here, this guy is dead. This," he held up the NNP sprayer, "is the best I can offer. So I offer it. If you don't want to do so yourself, then you may explain to their families why you did not. But I choose to help everyone I can." He turned and continued north. "Let's go."

As they walked, Shepard's suit comm clicked.

"Rich, this is Kaidan. I've switched to privacy mode for a moment. He can't hear me, but he could hear you, so just listen."

Shepard acted as if he couldn't hear this, and kept walking north.

Kaiden continued, "Our esteemed Commander Shepard is a _Technologist_. I don't just mean he knows about technology, it means he thinks that technology can save us. Not only from nature, but from each other…and maybe even death."

"Wha-?!"

"Quiet! He can still hear you," Kaiden said quickly.

"Corporal?" Shepard said without slowing his brisk pace.

"Sorry, sir…it's nothing."

Kaidan was silent as they continued north for a few seconds. "That was close. Like I said, just listen. Shepard thinks technology can save us…I've found the best thing to do is just let him spray his magic bottle on the dead ones. He's not hurting anyone, and it makes him feel better. And if you tell him I told you this, I'll put a grenade in your shorts. We can talk later if you want, but for now, just trust me and keep quiet about it."

The comm system chunked again.

"Hey, you guys getting any interference?" Shepard tapped his helmet. "I keep hearing something."

Kaidan feigned troubleshooting, "What…like static? Line noise? Echo?"

"Like someone's tapping their bone mic."

"I heard something," Richard said, "And it did sound like that."

Shepard played along, "You suppose Nihlus could be listening in?"

"Not on this channel," Kaidan said.

"You don't know that," Richard sounded like he was squinting, "I hear Spectres get access to lots of Top Secret tech."

Shepard smiled to himself, "That just means _they_ have to work the bugs out. Always more bugs in new tech than old tech, or stuff that's already been commercialized and licensed."

"Well, I haven't heard it. But I'll be listening for it now," Kaidan finished.

As they reached the top of the next hill, they could see three more of the SRN NT70s, two completed, the nearest still building itself. Smoke billowed from the two nearest.

Shepard's ARO had mapped their destination, and the next hundred meters or so were clear to a blind corner to the right. Outcroppings of rock offered ample cover.

Alenko was all business. "Two targets incoming. They're moving fast and straight; I think they're flying."

Shepard raised a fist, _Hold_. He directed them to cover on either side, waited until they were in position, and then moved forward.

"Eighty meters. Watch 'em." said Alenko.

Shepard said, "Check your targets, remember this is–"

Two matte-grey drones appeared at the far end of the next rise, raining fire as they came. Richard, well covered but closest, found himself their target. His training was to dive for new cover, but as he did, the machines tracked him precisely. Two lines of blue fire connected the drones with their prey, and Richard cried out in surprise and pain. Blood sprayed across the landscape behind him as he fell.

Shepard gestured to accelerate into full Firefight Mode. Everything around him seemed to slow down to nearly a crawl as the neurotronics sped up his synaptic rate to six times normal speed.

"Rich!" Kaidan leapt from cover, running _toward_ the drones, and then suddenly spinning a kind of pirouette; tech relays flew from either hand. In one fluid motion, he seemed to land in a crouch, throwing something at the drones as one might throw a javelin. As he did, indigo light exploded from his head and shoulders, coalescing into a projectile that accelerated away from him.

As the tech relays got within a meter of their targets, blue-white electrical arcs connected them with the relays, sending sparks flying. The burst of energy struck the electrically-joined machines and exploded.

There was nothing to do but watch the deadly dance; clearly it was one that had been performed many times before. But it did give Shepard time to start bringing up his weapon.

A third drone had joined the fray, and was bearing down on Kaidan. With his accelerated perception, Shepard could also move with increased precision; he took his right hand off the rifle, plucked a tech relay off his belt and flung it underhand toward the third drone. As it sailed across the space between them, Shepard gripped his rifle and squeezed the trigger. The drone exploded, close enough to Kaidan that he put up a hand to shield himself.

"Man down!" shouted Kaidan. He sprang across the field to where Richard had fallen.

Gesturing to slow back down to **No Acceleration**, Shepard watched the debris fall to the ground as he also bolted to Richard's side.

"Damn damn damn…took his leg off…and shrapnel in his abdomen." Kaidan wasn't looking up from his omnitool as the suit computer continued to analyze the injury. "Charged ammo, and lots of it; the stuff ripped right through his shields. Who are these guys?"

It didn't sound like the kind of question requiring an answer; Shepard dropped to his knees as the VI informed him it was switching to Sentry Mode. A radar-like overlay appeared on the right side of his visual field; no other moving objects had been detected. Shepard continued, "Jenkins' suit, active medigel deployment, code Blue."

"**_Medigel deployment at 30% efficiency_**," replied Jenkins' suit VI. It presented an icon on Shepard's ARO which, once activated, displayed an overlay of the damaged armor. Five of the twelve AbPlate modules had been shattered, medigel conduits underneath were useless. "**_Warning: Medical Emergency Proto—_**"

"Quiet, I know!" Shepard interrupted. "Release panels two, six…seven and eight. And eleven…and twelve." Atomic crosslinks between the panels retracted, the remaining pieces of the armor settled slightly, but visibly. Shepard pulled the debris away, flipping pieces aside as though digging; blood was filling the spaces between. Jenkins' suit would not be able to get the gel to where it was needed.

Shepard gestured to his suit VI, and the ARO showed what Kaidan had seen; whoever sent the drones, they were using smaller slugs at higher velocities, wrapped in shield-piercing "jackets." Though the jackets didn't make it through the shield, they allowed the payload through. The armor had taken all the damage, and even a gram of ammo accelerated to a fraction of light speed could shatter the exotic armor materials.

Shepard glanced at the tactical display; the bad guys were still headed in the same direction they had been; they still had some time. "Victor Indigo, manufacture replacements panels for Jenkins' ground armor…uh…Abdomen panels two, six, seven, eight, eleven and twelve."

The omnitool chirped as it began working; Shepard glanced toward Kaidan. "How you doin' there?"

Kaidan pointed, "I need to keep him from moving; hold him down over there. Do like this…" Kaidan brought up a knee and pressed it down on Jenkins' hip. Shepard put his right knee on Jenkins' left hip as Alenko pulled the detached leg up by the armor. "No, there!" Kaidan pointed higher up Jenkins' torso, "You don't want pressure near the abdominal wound. We might have to leave the leg, but…wait! Does his helmet have stasis installed?"

A glance revealed the double-lined and faintly-glowing green triangle. "Yes." Shepard turned his wrist so the fabber could still produce the armor replacements as he put a finger to the icon and held it there. After a pause, the helmet chirped three times, and then made a low hooting sound over their comms. Lights at the neck interface and on the front of the helmet slowly flashed blue.

"_**Emergency brain support enabled**,_" Richard's suit VI announced.

"Good," Kaidan said, pointing at Jenkins' belly, "Do you know how to tell if that's set up?"

"I have to build armor segments to get the gel applied," Shepard said as the omnitool chirped the completion of another segment, "But that'll take—"

"No, get the gel on there now!" Kaidan interrupted, "Otherwise he'll bleed to death!" He lifted the medigel pack he was holding, broke the seal and mashed it into the open wound. "The conduits are just for better control, the tech in the gel can work on its own; tape him shut!"

"I'm fabbing his armor," Shepard waved his left arm slightly, "Can you do it?"

"Trade places with me; you'll need to keep his leg together so he bleeds less." Kaidan rose to a crouch, "Do you know how to cauterize it? Chakwas can put it back on when we get back to the ship."

Shepard set the armor segment down on Jenkins' chest plate, moved to his right and took the leg at the knee and ankle. "Here?"

"Wait, stay where you are, put your…put _that_ knee _there_," Kaidan pointed at Shepard's left leg, slapped Richard's other hip, "And put a little weight on it."

Kaidan's enhanced vision showed him structures in different colors by density; he manipulated his omnitool, which extruded two small toothpick-like structures almost instantly. Fitting them on his thumb and forefinger, he picked a few pieces of shrapnel out by hand as Shepard placed two more armor segments atop Jenkins' unmoving chest. He fed them quickly back into the disassembler.

Shepard folded open his left thigh pocket, and handed Kaidan a nine centimeter square, wrapped in clear tape.

There was a faint fizzing sound in Shepard's ears as he fitted the last two pieces of armor into place. The ARO informed him that the damage underneath it was now getting medigel, that it had formed a scaffolded dermis, and was filling it quickly with blood recoded as IPS cells.

"Glad he's not awake," Shepard observed.

Kaidan didn't look away from his omnitool, "Oh yeah. 'Cos if it didn't hurt, you _know _it would itch like crazy. He wouldn't be able to keep his hands off it." He adjusted the omnitool and studied the display of how far along the reconnection process was.

With nothing to do but hold the Corporal together, Shepard noticed that Jenkins was not breathing.

And had no heartbeat.

"Still got no respiration, and no pulse," he said, "Do we need to start CPR?"

"No, you can't. Not yet. We have to get his leg and abdomen sealed. But he's in stasis, and that'll do what we need. When I tell you, you get up and trade positions with me again. I'm going to restart him as soon as I think the structures are strong enough to withstand it. What I really want you to do is hold this leg in place. Medigel should normally run for about five minutes before putting this kind of stress on it, but I don't think we can afford to wait. The leg was severed, so the armor can't go into Splint mode."

Shepard glanced at Kaidan and then at his omnitool. "There's a field repair for that. If I can fix his exoskeleton, will that do the trick?"

"Field repair? We don't have the time! We have to get him restarted, and we can't do that until he's closed up."

"Wait…if he's in stasis, can he wait for another minute?" Shepard started the build.

"One minute?" Kaidan seemed surprised and confused. "Well, yeah…but I thought it would take you longer to print out a new leg module."

Shepard explained as the omnitool printed. "His suit VI knows where the damage is; I only have to print four pieces of fifteen centimeter splint. They grip to the FlexNet and interface with any edition of PCMA newer than v12."

As the "treed" rods slid into Shepard's left hand, he snapped them apart and test-fitted them to the armor on Jenkins' lower left leg before taking them off again. "Set it to display instructions on your TransOpter instead of mine." He touched the hologauntlet with one of the splints, and began affixing them to the armor

"Insert Medi-Gel™ between severed segments," Kaidan read off his ARO, "Clear a 3cm margin…Apply antiseptic tape…Set compression to 120 and…" He shook his head, "For a reattached amputation? How long have they had this?" He pulled another pack of medigel off his belt and broke the seal as Shepard fitted the bottom two struts. Blood continued to ooze freely, even if it wasn't pulsing; there was still a huge gap between the parts of Jenkins' leg.

Shepard picked up the BioTape card Kaidan had put on Jenkin's armor, rolled out a length of it, and slid it between the struts and Jenkins' leg. "I heard about it…mm…eighteen months ago, but I have a special interest in my personal health, so I try to stay aware of such things. Also wanted to be able to help if anyone needed it."

Kaidan focused on Richard again; with the tape under the leg, the medigel would be retained while it worked. Shepard tore it off at a perforation, and patched the ends while Kaidan adjusted the settings on Jenkins' medigel controller. "That's it? Just because it might be helpful?" He touched the Start key on his omnitool. "Wait. We've got to get him restarted. You're going to want to grip the leg like I'm doing here. See how I have my hands around the injury, and how I'm keeping it up off the ground?"

"Got it. I can do that."

"But I'm going to restart his heart, and that will make him jump. That'll mean _away from you,_ and up _away from the ground_. You'll have to support the lower leg and be able to move it in that direction as needed. We can't let him break open, or he'll bleed to death."

Shepard's sentry radar pinged. "Unknown at one-fifty, northeast. Looks like two walkers. We've got three…maybe four minutes."

"Let's get him going, then. Are you ready?"

"Ready."

Kaidan seemed to hesitate. "You know I left you in the loop with the Technologist talk," he said almost guiltily.

"Of course. Sierra Hotel, Lieutenant; I appreciate it. I thought you handled it _brilliantly_." He glanced back down at the Corporal, "Now are we gonna _use technology_ to save him or what?"

"Yeah." Kaiden grinned and nodded. "Okay, let's do this."

Shepard rose, moved next to Kaidan, took Jenkins' leg – trading hands with Kaidan one at a time – and then positioning himself so he could see the injury. "Victor Indigo, Sentry to left half of ARO. Medical TransOpter on right half." The display adjusted, and Shepard was able to see the bones looked to be perfectly aligned, but still with some space between them.

"Gut injury's doing well," Alenko said. "You have an update on the inbound?"

Shepard focused on the Sentry display. "No change in speed or direction. I think we're dealing with ground mechs. But I'm not getting IFF data off 'em, so they're not municipal. Could be private, but I'm thinking they're hostiles. We have maybe a minute and a half before they'll be able to see us...assuming they haven't already picked up our infrared."

Kaidan had straddled Jenkins' chest in a crouch, but put no weight on him.

"I'm gonna restart him; are you ready?"

"Ready."

Kaidan spoke to his omnitool, "Jenkins' suit, Code Blue restart now!"

"_**Charging for restart**,_" replied the suit VI. "**_Clear of contact?_**"

Alenko hunkered down slightly, gripped Jenkins' helmet with both hands, "Clear!"

There was a muffled metallic _crunch_, and Jenkins lurched violently. Kaidan threw out an arm to keep from being smashed against the rock as Jenkins coughed, sputtered, then inhaled on his own. He convulsed, bringing his right leg up to try to push Kaidan away.

"Hold him down, hold him down!" Kaidan pressed a finger into Richard's helmet to toggle the brain support out of Recovery mode and back to its Stabilizer mode. "Richard…Richard! You're _okay_!"

"Richard, you're alright," Shepard spoke quickly, "It's Stephen and Kaidan. You took some fire, but we've got you back. We've got to move, though."

The man flailed as his eyes blinked rapidly, "Help," he said through clenched teeth, "Help!" As he seemed to focus on Kaidan, he relaxed. "Oh…Kaidan…I mean, Lieutenant. What are you doing here? What happened?"

Kaidan watched Richard's vitals on a translucent window on his ARO as he waved his omnitool over the splint. "We got ambushed. You took some fire. We fixed you up, but it was close. You need to lie still for a few minutes and let the damage repair."

"One minute…" Shepard saw the bones in Richard's leg were cooling to 35°C, but not fast enough. "Can we move him? Up to that rock, so we have some cover?"

"Carefully. Richard, we have to move you. Don't try to help. Just relax." Kaidan moved around so he could drag Richard by his shoulders; Shepard kept weight and shear forces off the still-fusing leg. Fortunately, they only had to move about a meter.

"Can I have some medigel? Do I need it?" Richard asked.

"You've got three packs working right now," Kaidan peeked over the rock toward where he knew the inbound was. "If you haven't got a PMA running, you should start one."

"Uh…sir?"

"A Pain Management App." Alenko glanced at him briefly. "Wait, don't tell me. You thought you could just tough it out?"

"It's not bad now…well, it kind of throbs…" His eyes grew suddenly larger. "Hot!"

Shepard gripped his wrists with his opposing hands, "Go like this, Jenkins, go like this!"

Both Richard's fists were clenched. "It itches like a _mother_!"

Shepard tapped one finger on Jenkins' faceplate, "Attaboy. Keep it up. Stay focused." He leaned up closer to Jenkins' face, "And if you reach for it and I will personally _knock you out_," he said, continuing to hold the leg aloft and toward Richard's torso.

"I know, but I didn't know it would _burn_!"

"Do you have ToughIt installed?" Kaidan wheeled through something on his omnitool. "Or Sleepi?"

"That stuff's for _nerds_," Richard sputtered.

"You'd better get over _that_ attitude real quick, Corporal," Kaidan continued to look at his omnitool's gauntlet display as he took remote control of the Corporal's omnitool, "These things have been developed by people like us for use in situations like this. If you don't have them, or know how to use them, people can die. Your DI should have told you as much."

Jenkins spoke through clenched teeth, "You sound just like him," he growled, "My suit's as well-programmed as everyone else's."

"It's not about letting the tech do the work for you. You have to be prepared for these things. I'm taking over your suit VI," Kaidan hunkered behind the gray outcropping, "You've got to have _something_…there." He nodded, seemed satisfied. He activated a very heavy-duty tranquilizer/analgesic. "AFE has some stuff...there you go. That should help."

Richard relaxed visibly. "Oh…" he blinked rapidly, "Oh, that's much better. Hey, I could do this all day." He took a couple of breaths. "Wait. Aren't we supposed to go get something?"

Shepard snapped, "Quiet, stop moving. Bad guys at fifty meters." He watched the blobs on his map overlay for a few seconds. "Still acting like they don't see us."

The three men looked at each other expectantly as they waited. Shepard kept watching the ARO's calculated map. Whatever the two things were, they turned and accelerated toward the humans. "I take it back," Shepard said, "You two stay down." His omnitool emitted a hockey-puck-shaped tech grenade, which Shepard passed to his right hand, then another, and another. "Must have used DMT to spot us. I'm gonna short out their weapons first. Kaidan, you be ready to head over there." He nodded to the west with his head. "If I can't stop them, I'm going to draw their fire the other way."

As the tech grenades displayed a pattern of lights indicating their readiness, Shepard selected 6x Acceleration on his omnitool, then rolled left and tossed the grenades over the outcropping. Blue bolts fired overhead, and all three winked off his display.

Firefight mode slid into place. The grenades had located the two targets and sent images from aloft; before being destroyed, they showed something clearly not colony mechs; the humanoid forms were topped with a curving arc of a head, ending in a self-lit camera. Shepard's momentary ignorance disappeared into confusion as the VI identified them: **GETH**.

"Geth!" he barked. He squeezed the sides of his rifle's scope and the ARO switched to the scope's view; he poked the weapon over the top of the outcropping. The suit had discriminated the targets and outlined them; Shepard said, "Victor Indigo Autotarget!" The words **Autotargeting ACTIVE** appeared briefly over his view of the hostiles, then faded to semi-transparency. The geth were already in cover again; Shepard fired to keep them there.

One of the geth was closing fast on Kaidan; though it moved from cover to cover, it was far less conservative than Shepard would have been were the roles reversed. He tracked it until it moved through a cluster of tall grasses; his assault rifle chattered, the geth went down.

His weapon suddenly exploded; he watched in slow motion as it was blown out of his hands, shrapnel flying to the right. Refocusing on the ARO showed he had nearly been flanked. He rolled left and drew his pistol as he dove into new cover. The geth emitted a stream of noise that sounded like static as Shepard fired two preemptive shots, and then poked his pistol out from behind the rock to find himself under fire.

He pulled back into cover, touched left thumb to forefinger. As the omnitool rendered another tech grenade, he thought, _These geth things are insanely fearless…I thought they were supposed to be AGIs, not just expendable puppets._ He leaned around the rock and rolled the grenade toward the geth. Another tech grenade popped into his hand, and he tossed it high and right, drawing attention away from the lower, slower first grenade.

The flying grenade promptly disappeared in an explosion. There was a loud burst of electrical static, and the red outline disappeared from the display.

His ARO pinged an alarm and drew a callout on the hostile. Kaidan and Richard, about six meters away, were looking in his direction, and didn't see the geth weapon as it appeared from behind another rock.

Firefight mode allowed Shepard to realize he wasn't going to be able to bring his weapon to bear on it fast enough; he started to do so anyway. "Kaidan!" he shouted.

It was painful to watch the geth weapon zeroing in on his teammates faster than he was able to bring his own weapon to bear, but he continued, even as he began searching for alternatives.

Kaidan's head turned slightly. Then his back arched as if he had been impaled.

_No! _ Shepard thought.

Kaidan's omnitool gauntlet lit up as he continued to bend and twist to his left, and Shepard watched as something extended from the omnitool like a stiletto.

As they connected, it became obvious: the Lieutenant had fabricated an electrically-charged stabbing weapon. Blue-white arcs covered the geth, and the machine seemed to fold in half.

Shepard's pistol was aiming at empty air as his time perception slowed back down. He was breathing hard and fast...as usual...and his forehead hurt…also as usual.

Richard was trying to crane his neck to see what Shepard was aiming at as Kaidan stood heavily from the smoking wreckage.

"Nice work, Lieutenant. Innovative." Shepard shook his head. "Made up for my FUBAR."

The still-smoking blade was reversing into the omnitool's disassembler; Kaidan didn't look up. "Thank _you_…I didn't see him. Jenkins, you all right?"

"Getting there, sir. Probably need a few more minutes to be back on my feet."

"You can bet on it," Kaidan held up an open hand toward the Corporal. "Lie back. Stay."

The younger man barked like a dog. Then he had second thoughts and added, "Sir."

Shepard was checking his suit sensors for signs of more hostiles. "It can't be safe here. We've taken down two parties, six guys…or robots, I mean…and I'd bet you they're as aware we're here as we are."

***** Glossary *****

AGI: Artificial General Intelligence

CFR: Civilian First Response

DI: Drill Instructor

DMT: Doppler Motion Tracking

FUBAR: Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition (worse than SNAFU)

IPS cells: Induced Pluripotent Stem cells. Stem cells derived from other local tissue.

MEFG: Mass Effect Field Generators

NNP: Nanotech Neurological Preservative. After the rise in popularity of cryogenic preservation, a short-term "last aid" solution appeared for people who die quite remote from a cryo facility to prevent damage to the brain while awaiting transport. As of 2180, NNP is effective for about five to seven months, depending on the conditions at death (hydration, temperature, type of damage if any, etc.) Normally a 2cc cell of NNP is integrated into a user's omnitool, but First Responders (SAR, CFR, and other First Aid Personnel) are nearly always equipped with NNP injectors.

PCMA: Personal Cyber Medicine Application. First-line VI-augmented personalized medicine, a default app in omnitools.

RFID ("AR-fid"): Radio Frequency ID

SAR: Search and Rescue

SmartPak: an integrated weapons carrier worn as the back panel for compatible standard armor types. Active hardpoint controllers are linked to standard combat VIs so that a soldier has only to reach for the weapon for it to unlock and begin decompaction. Also automatically connects to weapons and allows them to finish compaction when being secured.

SNAFU: Situation Normal: All Fouled Up

TransOpter: Omnitool (mostly medical) function allowing user to see hidden structure of small, close objects.


	3. Chapter 3: Guart Blind

A/N - Sorry, this is my first story, so I'm making mistakes, and going back to correct them takes a bit of time. There are terms and acronyms in here that may be unfamiliar; each chapter has a glossary at the end so you can flip down to the bottom, find out what it is, and then go back. (I tried it with the full name in parentheses, but it was too distracting to the scene and dialogue flow.)

This chapter is rated T for the postmortem butchery of geth.

***** Guart Blind *****

Kaidan put a hand over his omnitool. "Should we make a stretcher?"

"It would let us keep moving…at least until he's able to move on his own." Shepard raised his own arm. "I've got 82 available. You?"

"I've got 21."

"21?" Shepard squinted. "That blade you made was a little expensive, wasn't it?"

Kaidan shrugged. "It was the _speed_ required. A lot of waste."

"Still, you can't beat the results. Is that on MilComReq?"

"No, actually...it's...from a _hobbyist_ site. This one is my own modification of…um…a tastelessly named one. Want me to send my rewrite to you?"

Shepard nodded. "Yes, and right now." He touched his left thumb and ring finger, illuminating the gauntlet, which he extended toward the other man. Kaidan pinched an icon on his own omnitool, touched his clasped fingers to Shepard's outstretched arm and opened them. Both heard a four-note tune, indicating the file had been offered. Shepard touched the icon on his omnitool and another three-note tune played as the file was accepted. "Thanks."

"I have mine set to run if I clench my fist and twist it like this," Kaidan demonstrated with exaggerated slowness, "but your VI should pick it right up after a few uses." Shepard tapped the icon again, selected an option from the menu flyout, and made the same move. The omnitool twittered and glowed briefly green. **Gesture association enabled in Firefight mode.**

"Victor Indigo, remind me of this when I get back," Shepard said toward his forearm, "I want to drill with it." The tool squirkled in response.

"Okay, we still have to make the stretcher," Kaidan pointed to his omnitool, looked up at Shepard. "You should make the connector side."

"Yeah." Shepard spun through some menus, found a pattern, tapped it, and gripped the 3 centimeter rod loosely, allowing it to extrude though his hand.

"Can we get any omnigel from the bad guys?" Richard asked.

Shepard looked up as the fabrication continued. "Good thinking, Corporal. Don't know if I'd have thought of that until we were two klicks down the road." The omnitool buzzed quietly as it worked; the olive drab matte finish on the rod was a low enough resolution that Shepard could make out where the rotary head was glitching. A look toward Kaidan showed he was making a similar, smaller rod.

As Shepard's omnitool finished, he twisted the rod off the emitter and moved the end to where Kaidan could reach it. "Here, assemble this. I'm going to go investigate our attackers, see what I can salvage."

"Shouldn't we do that together? They might still be dangerous."

Shepard sighed heavily. "We need to keep moving," he thought aloud, "We're on the clock, and we now have hostiles to contend with." His eyes fell on their wounded cohort. "Jenkins, can you assemble this while we check the mechs…um…_geth _for salvage?" He waved toward where the geth had fallen.

"You bet, sir."

"Don't strain yourself," Kaidan said, "You're still Under Construction. Stay on your back and keep your head down; let _gravity_ hold it in your hands."

"Got it, sir."

Shepard and Kaidan handed the freshly-fabricated rods down to the prone Jenkins. Kaidan generated a barrier and gestured to the nearer of the fallen androids. Weapons out, they approached the geth slowly, and from different angles. "This thing twitches, and I'll blow it to Mars." Kaidan's barrier made it almost impossible for him to hide. As they circled it, both men worked their omnitools carefully, checking multiple sensors against what they could see.

"Looks absolutely dark," Shepard observed, "No emissions I can detect."

"Nothing here, either. Wait…this is a _geth_. I mean, it's really a geth."

"Well, our VIs think so," Shepard clarified.

"Right. You know what I mean." Kaidan moved around to the other side of the fallen android. "Does that make this a First Contact sort of event? Should we save these things for study?"

"I don't see how we can. Our objective is to secure that beacon and get it aboard _Normandy_ ASAP. Our secondary is to help the locals fight off whatever is attacking, and from what we can see here, that looks like a lot more than we can handle ourselves. Jenkins is broken, and even after we get him fixed, his armor is compromised. These things," Shepard indicated with his weapon, "are probably responsible."

He paused in thought for a moment. "Still, the intel to be collected is probably in the computing substrate. Which is…in the torso, I expect. I'd bet you we can 'gel the extremities and get both of us back to full." He holstered his pistol, pulled a 23cm combat knife off his right boot.

Kaidan looked up from his omnitool and nodded. "That's what my scanner shows. I'll log the GPS so you can and include it in your report."

Shepard nodded, still eyeing the geth. He frowned deeply. "This makes me…unhappy."

"What?" Kaidan looked up from his omnitool. "What do you mean?"

"They look enough like people…I feel like I'll be hacking arms and legs off." He shook his head. "Nope. Can't think like that. They tried to kill us, and they're probably part of the invasion. Damn, I wish we'd had more intel before landing." He knelt next to the geth and plunged the blade into its shoulder. White liquid gushed out and pooled beneath the cut; Shepard withdrew the knife quickly.

"They're almost _organic_," Kaidan sounded astonished.

"I expected muscle analogues…with this structure." Shepard waved his knife at the arm, "I didn't expect it to go so far." He steeled himself, sliced the arm the rest of the way off and impaled the knife into soft dirt. It came out clean.

"That's weird," Kaidan shook his head.

Shepard handed him the arm by its wrist. "Here, get started. You need way more 'gel than I do."

Kaidan took the arm gingerly, shaking more of the "blood" out, and scanned it with his omnitool. "It sure is light," he observed, "Must be mostly composites. Or ceramics?"

Shepard was scanning the geth to determine where the computing center was actually housed. His VI converted the raw data into a more helpful analysis. "It looks like it's mostly plastics and…wait. Borophenes. The cores are full of them."

"Well, they still don't use very much. Look at how much the disassembler is rejecting."

Shepard looked up and saw the mass of gray non-metallic material collecting on the ground beneath Kaidan's omnitool as he fed the geth arm into the disassembler. "How much did you get?"

"Two. Maybe three."

"The scanner says there's no significant computing until you get to here," He pointed with the tip of the knife. "I'm hoping the legs will have more metals."

"One way to find out," Kaidan said. He rose from a crouch, walked to the extended leg of the geth, and started the disassembler on it. It looked very much as if the geth was being eaten by Kaidan's omnitool.

"This is a lot more disturbing than breaking down small arms," Shepard said through his teeth.

"Yeah… their arms are the same size as ours. Not that small at all."

Shepard gave him a look somewhere between a reprimand and exasperation.

Kaidan shrugged, "Hey, just trying to lighten things up."

Shepard grunted and turned back to where he had the geth under his knife. Allowing another centimeter of margin, he plunged the knife straight down, and proceeded to cut so as to keep the computing centers intact. It felt like cutting through celery.

"Seems to be even less metal here than in the arm," Kaidan noted, "Must be a composite endoskeleton." He focused on the display. "And there's nanofactured machinery in here; there's more usable material here than I thought."

Shepard detached the other arm and paused at the head. "We keep our brains in our heads; that doesn't mean they do."

Alenko glanced up only briefly from his disassembly. "Is that armor right there? On the head? Does it detach?"

Shepard pulled at the outer layer, and found that it slid off easily if pulled along the axis. "Guess so." He laid the two pieces aside and paused. "Wait a minute." As he rose, he spotted the enemy weapon. The broken pieces of his own rifle were just a short distance away; he detoured in that direction, picked them up and ran the fragments into his disassembler.

"They don't have much armor themselves, so they must rely heavily on shielding," he walked over to the geth rifle, "But it seems odd that they'd design ammo to work as well against their own defensive tech." He scanned the weapon, studied the results. "No booby-traps on the rifle…though that's almost always a bad idea."

"For unaugmented humans, yes. But these are machines."

Shepard nodded thoughtfully. He scanned the weapon again, more closely and thoroughly. "There just doesn't seem to be any exotic tech here." His VI identified and marked them in differing colors ThruView on his ARO, and he spoke the names aloud, "Power interface, sight computing, linac, ammo block, WINC..." He looked around, checking the map display for nearby threats while waiting for the suit VI to assemble and render a simulation of the weapon. "Alenko, can you stay on alert for a minute? I want to do a Firefight VRS on this thing."

"Wait a minute, let me finish this arm." Kaidan's disassembler spat out the last of the unusable material with a fizz and a chirp. He checked his rifle settings and fitted it to his shoulder, aiming at the horizon, though his eyes were on his ARO's sensor display. "Okay, I'm on."

Shepard accelerated into VRS, interacting virtually with the alien weapon at four times normal speed; conservative but reliable…and it didn't make his head hurt. He picked up the virtualized weapon, examining it in minute detail. His engineering background made it apparent how it worked as a weapon; aside from its relative fragility as a club there was nothing out of the ordinary. (Shepard had been in the virtual meeting when the Avenger RFQ was being written; some curmudgeon had demanded a weapon that could be used to beat an enemy senseless and still be able to fire.)

The most interesting thing about the weapon was how compactly it could fold up. He noted that it was designed to be easily pincered at several places along its grip, and that if held in his open hand, he could activate it just by squeezing his hand closed; the grip opened right into his palm, and the components sprang into position fast enough that he didn't have to wait for it to finish once he'd lifted it to his shoulder.

He opened and closed the virtual weapon a few more times. The grip-first deployment was quite clever; as fast as it was, it still gave him instant control over where he could aim the weapon even before it was fully configured. The SmartPak was able to grip it, and it could be disassembled with one hand.

Finally, he squeezed the trigger, and a message appeared in his line of sight:  
><strong>Test firing successful.<br>****Estimated mean cyclic rate: 120 RPS  
><strong>**Muzzle velocity: 2814 m/s**

Satisfied, he slid back down into realtime.

"Done," said Jenkins.

"Nice timing," Shepard knelt and picked up the geth weapon, raised it to his shoulder and squeezed the trigger carefully. The weapon was relatively quiet, and more stable than an Avenger.

Satisfied, he lifted it over his shoulder; the SmartPak grabbed it with a quick servo hum, and his ARO displayed the successful docking with a green status pixel that faded quickly. "Alenko, how are you for omnigel?"

"33," he answered. "Even that other mech…um, _geth_… will only get me to 45 or so."

"There's another one over there," Shepard pointed up the hill, "You need help?"

"No, I got it." Kaidan started toward the nearer enemy, "What do you think of their assault rifle?"

"I'm impressed," Shepard started walking back to where Richard lay. "Deploys faster than the Avenger, and grip first. Seems like it'd be better against shields. Not much good if you suddenly need a club, though."

Richard had laid the completed stretcher to his left, and was accessing civilian channels. The audio was limited to Jenkins' helmet, but the video showing on his omnitool's holographic interface showed the security camera view of another part of the colony.

Shepard crouched beside him. "How are they doing?"

"I think they're fine…my family, I mean. I'm not seeing any fighting out west. We live far enough out that they may only have heard about the attack. My older sister would be over to see them today – because it's Sunday – and so she's fine, too. I think. My other brothers are still in school, so they live at home."

"Glad to hear your family's okay," Shepard agreed, "Do you have any intel on the colony?" He started picking up the pieces of Jenkins' armor and feeding them back into his disassembler.

Jenkins paused, gave Shepard a guilty look. "No, sir. I was trying to raise them directly. I haven't gotten through yet. Comm is either flooded or being deliberately jammed. But we live...I mean _they_ live...on the other side of the colony from the spaceport, so I'm thinking they're okay." He shrugged, winced. "I'd rather know."

"But you know the geth landed at or near the spaceport?"

"Yes, sir. Uh…a local news says they crossed over the towers on the way in, and fired on approach, but set down at Douglas and deployed more ground troops from there. It looks like the ship they came in is huge…like…dreadnought size."

"They've landed a _dreadnought_?" Shepard wondered if the shape they had seen just before the transmission was cut off was what had landed. "I hope Trident can tell that from the—"

Nihlus' voice interrupted, "Lot of burned out buildings here, Shepard. A looooot of bodies. I'm going to check it out. I'll try to catch up with you at the dig site."

Jenkins turned his head toward Shepard, but there was no way to see his grin behind the breather. "Should we tell him the Captain said 'radio silence'?"

"You do that," Shepard replied.

"As soon as we get back," Jenkins agreed.

"Alenko, how you doing?"

"All done," came the reply. "Looks like you picked up the only working weapon, so I gelled one of the other two. I'm at 70. Jenkins, you want this other one? How much 'gel you got?"

The Corporal glanced at his omnitool. "94, but I'm good." He glanced at Shepard. "How you doin', sir?"

Shepard could hear Kaidan approaching; his ARO read, **78**.

"Looks like it's yours, Lieutenant."

"Thanks, guys," Kaidan activated his Disassembler, shredding the geth weapon into component molecules. Shepard gestured with his head to Kaidan, "You want to get positioned down there to handle his leg? I suspect you're better trained."

"You bet." Kaidan stepped over Richard as the last of the weapon dissolved into its raw materials. "How you feeling?"

"Worried about my family," Richard didn't look away from his omnitool, "Especially since I still can't reach them." His hands stopped moving briefly. "Kind of embarrassed about getting shot."

Kaidan snorted, "Yeah, like that was your fault. I saw what happened. You were outflanked by a microUAV. We didn't know they were so small or maneuverable. Don't worry about it."

"Yeah." Jenkins seemed unconvinced. "Still no more bad guys?"

Shepard was already watching his ARO, "Not yet. Gonna want you ERA soon, though."

"I feel good enough to _walk_," Jenkins objected.

Kaidan glanced at the medical data scrolling up part of his ARO and nodded. "I'm sure you do. And I'm sure you're not."

"We should only need 30 minutes for it to set up, right?" Shepard asked. "The braces holding your exoskeleton together will keep you mobile if we get in trouble after that."

Kaidan waved his lit gauntlet over Jenkins' leg, "Can you feel your lower leg yet?"

Richard didn't move, trying to feel without looking. "No, sir. Should I?"

Kaidan shook his head, "Not from what I see here, but I'm just a medtech. The bone is , but it'll still take a while for it to fully harden. The gel will actively maneuver recoverable tissue so it's correctly aligned, and force out any foreign matter like shrapnel or unsigned cybernetics. Then it decharges the rest of the gel and forms skin if it can. BioTape helps a lot."

After placing Richard on the stretcher, Shepard rose and looked ahead. "Let's move." He pointed to Kaidan, then to the "foot" end of the stretcher. He moved to the "head end," bent and gripped the stretcher's lateral handle with his left hand, drew his pistol from its powerclip with the other.

Kaidan kept talking to Richard, "Also helps if you're on a PMA. I worked in a military hospital as a biotics liaison, got to know something about medigel. Even fulfilled a course requirement for my medical rating with some of my volunteer time in the ER. You still need fast, ultrahigh-resolution printers to make omnigel, but I'll tell ya, those things ran _non-stop_."

Shepard suspected Kaidan was demonstrating good bedside manner; talking to Richard to keep his mind off the weird itching and possible pain he would surely be feeling, even while his PMA was active.

He accelerated his awareness to 4x to give himself more time to evaluate their path forward while watching the sensors. Environmental noise continued to arrive at what sounded like a normal pitch, but they took longer; his footfalls were disturbingly loud to him. He holstered the pistol, and took hold of the stretcher with both hands.

"Medigel has saved more lives in the thirty years it's been out than almost every other medical technology ever invented. It never ceases to amaze me that Sirta practically gives the licenses – and the stuff itself – away." They continued to move uphill through the field of vertical outcroppings, and around to the right near the hill's crest.

As they approached the top of the hill, the obvious path veered right, through a small stand of trees.

"The trees look like they have wide bases…but they're _flat_," Kaidan observed.

Richard pointed. "Dad says this area floods pretty regularly, and you can tell which way the water goes by how the trees grow. It even affects how the rocks seem to line up…path of least resistance, you know?"

Shepard's ARO tagged a glint of metal at 11 meters; the suit indicated it smelled of explosives. "Hold," he said.

Behind him, Kaidan stopped.

Shepard's helmet optics zoomed and began to analyze it. Shepard weaved his head to the left and right slightly, giving the sensor better depth perception.

**SLAPM**, said the ARO. _A Self-Launching Anti-Personnel Mine._ Shepard didn't recognize the design, assumed it unfriendly.

"Alenko, can you hit that thing in one shot? I can't see through the scope of the geth rifle."

"Hang on," said Kaidan, bringing his pistol to bear. Its scope looked straight down the linear accelerator; the view was displayed on his ARO. Kaidan put the crosshairs on it and squeezed the trigger.

The mine exploded in a burst of orange and a small black cloud.

"Nice shot, sir," Jenkins piped up.

"Expert," agreed Shepard. "Let's hope we don't miss any others. Can I have your eyes on this task?"

"Only if my life depends on it," Kaidan nodded.

Jenkins snorted a laugh. "'Only if my life depends on it,'" he giggled, "That's funny, sir."

Kaidan shook his head. "Nope…just so old, it's new again."

They went another 80 meters or so; Shepard spotted another object. "Hold."

Kaidan also squinted at the white box, "Could they have deployed more than one type of automated RPG?"

"To use against _civilians_?" Jenkins was aghast. "That…that's just barbaric!"

Shepard scowled and sighed. "Yeah…welcome to your first shooting war, Corporal. It gets worse. It always gets worse."

Richard had elevated his rifle above his body and aimed it at the object so he could see it without getting up. "That's not a weapon. It's an unused box…of…" He couldn't quite read the lettering, "Aw, I can't tell. But I know the store that wrapped it. Mussy's is a sports and fitness equipment group. It's…well, if it is what it looks like, it's harmless. It looks like someone just left it. Or dropped it."

"Let's set him down," Kaidan said. As they set down the stretcher, Shepard drew his sniper rifle, sighted down the unknown. Kaidan raised his weapon, but continued to look for other objects.

"They've distracted us before," Shepard said, "I'm starting to think they travel in threes so that one can draw fire, the second can locate the target, and the third can flank it. They might swap data by CobbleStone, or something like it."

Kaidan moved as he spoke, "What one sees, all see?"

"It's a good idea, if you can avoid data overload." As Shepard's VI took and analyzed Doppler readings, the Certainty Level was rising on his ARO.

Kaidan read from the side of the box, "Guh-wart Camouflage, Scorpion all-weather…?"

Richard was the expert again, "Guwart hunters?" He stretched his rifle up as high as he could, but still could not see past or over enough of the tall, yellow grasses. "Somebody left a guwart-hunting suit in the original box?"

"It's got a Qcode and a TID," Shepard observed. "It looks like a sealed shipping box, all right." He drew his pistol, aimed beside the box and fired a single shot next to it.

Nothing happened.

Shepard remained suspicious. "It can't be anything we'll care about."

"Couldn't hurt to look," Kaidan suggested.

"Then I'll do it. Cover me." As Shepard approached the white packing container, he spun up his shields, reached for the foil seal of the box with the acceleration tuner on the muzzle of his rifle. The seal crumpled and tore, the lid sprang open when he released it. Inside was what looked like desert camouflage armor. Shepard tipped the box over, prodded the armor.

Watching closely from his relatively safe distance, Kaidan shook his head. "You actually need armor to hunt these goo-art things?"

"Yeah, you _actually_ do," Jenkins replied, "But the weekend warriors like to dress up like soldiers anyway. It's kind of like a bear, and if you don't take out the eyes, it'll tear you apart. But they're night hunters, and they have big eyes, so it's not that hard…you just have to not get confused by the nostrils. They drop right out of the trees. Usually, they crush or stun whatever they drop on. The armor can save your life…if you're all _that _stupid about it. But the armor looks all _hooah_…I think that's the real reason why they buy it."

"You be okay here for a minute?"

"Sure thing, sir." He glanced around at his surroundings, and suddenly pointed. "Hey, look…that's a guwart blind! Someone must have stashed this stuff up here. And those trees we just came through…that's the sort of place where you'd find 'em."

Kaidan sauntered over to where Shepard was inspecting the armor. He reached into the blind and lifted out a few ammo modifiers. "Chemical and antipersonnel ammo mods."

"Yeah, you need that," Jenkins continued, "If you miss the eyes, they'll get real mad. Run you down. Really tough and really, _really_ aggressive. That's why the guart blinds are like that…it's like a reinforced bunker. Might even be a grenade in there."

There was; Kaidan held it up. "Hunting with grenades? Isn't that like fishing with dynamite?"

Jenkins was shaking his head. "Sir…you do _not_ want one of these things to get you. They're all teeth and claws. Climbs those trees like…at a run, and will attack things bigger than itself if it's desperate or threatened. They work in groups, too. Intelligent. Mean." He paused thoughtfully. "Sorta like Captain Krause."

"I thought you said these hunter guys wear the armor to feel all tough."

"You wear the armor if you have Brain One in your head because it'll save your life. It just also happens to a big ego booster, too. Why even bother to hunt them in the first place?" He was on a rant now, his self-restraint relaxed by the PMA. "You can _print out_ almost anything you care to eat anymore, and there are easier ways to keep the things from wandering into town. Nobody hunts because they have to, or because they're hungry...they hunt because it's a big oo-_look-what-a-tough-guy-I-am_ thing. Idiots."

Shepard looked up from the box. "I was going to 'gel it, but this description says it has shields and medigel conduits. It just doesn't have adaptive camouflage."

Kaidan held a piece of the armor up so they could see it, "He could use a new leg. Will it integrate with an Onyx?"

Shepard consulted his omnitool's Library. After a pause, he shook his head. "No, it won't."

"How about this…the camouflage on this suit is optimal for this environment. I'll bet I can get the outer layer of that armor on in three minutes, and we can get Jenkins into new leg pieces."

Shepard noted that the specs were almost twice what the Onyx armor offered. He looked up from his omnitool. "You've got two minutes. Get that leg off first and I can get it on Jenkins." He walked over to where the young man lay on the stretcher.

"Keep an eye on the radar," Kaidan said as he began to remove the outer layer of his own armor, "And you don't want to put it on him yet; the braces are still holding him together."

Shepard waved his omnitool over Jenkins, read the results. "Looks like _you're_ moving right along," he said, "Your suit's telling me you'll be ready to walk in another few minutes."

"Here it is; just put it on the stretcher with him." Kaidan tossed the lower leg armor so it landed next to Shepard, scattering dirt as it did.

Jenkins was getting talkative, "Hey, Lieutenant? Remember when you asked if I could feel my leg? I can't feel my leg, but I can feel my big toe. And a couple of others. Wow, this is so konko. I can't feel my leg, but I can feel my toes."

"Can you wiggle them?"

A pause. "No…I can't." He sounded worried.

"That's good, that's really good," Kaidan reassured him. "Don't worry. I'm changing into the goo-wart hunting armor and you can use the leg plates from mine."

"It's _guwart_, sir."

"You say potato," Kaidan hefted a large piece of the armor, "I say spud."

***** Glossary *****

ARO: Augmented Reality Overlay

CobbleStone: a visual-data aggregation software module developed in the 2060s that allows swarms to collect environmental information from multiple camera angles (or other scanning media) and thereby build up a cohesive 3D map of an area relatively quickly.

ER: Emergency Room

ERA: Expert, ready and able – The phrase "ready and able" has seen use in the military for centuries; the recent addition of "Expert" arose during the advent of Digital Knowledge Transfer (DKT). Whether by DKT or experience, "Expert" indicates both field-specific knowledge, and the possessor if it.

linac: linear accelerator

MilComReq: Military Command Requisitions. A database of apps and printable devices approved/recommended for Alliance operations.

NNP: Nanotech Neurological Preservative. After the rise in popularity of cryogenic preservation, a short-term "last aid" solution appeared for people who die quite remote from a cryo facility to prevent damage to the brain while awaiting transport. As of 2180, NNP is effective for about five to seven months, depending on the conditions at death (hydration, temperature, type of damage if any, etc.) Normally a 2cc cell of NNP is integrated into a user's omnitool, but First Responders (paramedics, SAR, CFR, and other First Aid Personnel) are nearly always equipped with NNP injectors.

PMA: Pain Management Application

RFQ: Request For Quote. A document issued to potential contractors for production or design of a product. Often includes design requirements and operational constraints.

SmartPak: an integrated weapons carrier worn as the back panel for compatible standard armor types. Active hardpoint controllers are linked to standard combat VIs so that a soldier has only to reach for the weapon for it to unlock and begin decompaction. Also automatically connects to weapons and allows them to finish compaction when being secured.

TID: Thing Identifier: A unique base-36 identifier for products or unique pieces that uses RFID [Radio Frequency ID] when polled to identify itself. Number is often printed or otherwise applied to the object.

VRS: Virtual Reality Simulation. A simulation of a process or device in VR for analytical purposes.

WINC: Weapons Intelligence Network Computing


	4. Chapter 4: Ashley Williams

A/N - Sorry, this is my first story, so I'm making mistakes, and going back to correct them takes a bit of time. There are terms and acronyms in here that may be unfamiliar; each chapter has a glossary at the end so you can flip down to the bottom, find out what it is, and then go back. (I tried it with the full name in parentheses, but it was too distracting to the scene and dialogue flow.)

This chapter is rated MA for death by impalement, a firefight, and language.

***** Ashley Williams *****

Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams pulled the door shut behind her, breathing heavily.

Uly Guiterrez was beside himself, "Why did you shoot as we were _running away_? They might not have seen us if we just ran away _quietly_!"

"Have you seen the guns they're using? It's like our shields aren't even up!"

"I know, I know! That's why we had to get in here." He was rummaging through the boxes in the little prefab like a madman, "Get out your shield generator."

"What?"

He pointed frenetically over his shoulder without looking. "Get your shield generator out of your…backpack thing. SmartPak. Hurry!" From the scattered equipment on the floor, he started grabbing items and throwing them on the nearest crate.

Ash sat down and released the backclip section to the floor, where it landed with a heavy _klank_. Holding her torso plate on with one hand, she flipped the backplate over and clicked the shield module out of it, rolled it across the floor toward him.

Ulysses "Uly" Guiterrez, one of the tech contractors who worked at the Alliance base "Sargon," had been at home when the geth had landed. At first, Ash had thought this was bad, but after the base was hit, and her unit decimated, she realized he was probably safe, and she knew where to find him. She had found him driving his 6-wheeled ground car _toward_ the base, apparently trying to get weapons.

They had been ambushed by geth. Uly's go-buggy had been destroyed, and now they were on the run, trying to find other Alliance soldiers or armed civilians.

He grabbed the shield generator before it rolled to a stop, pulled it open, and used a set of forceps to extract components. "Use your motion sensor thing…if they start heading for us, we need to get out of here."

"Suit's already in Combat Mode," she checked the display on her ARO anyway, "But you need a weapon. Do you know how to use a pistol? Or an assault rifle?"

"Uh...I keep a shotgun under my desk on base." He looked away from his work for a second in thought. "No help there."

"Shotgun's a great idea," Ash said. She pulled her shotgun off its holster and put it on the crate in front of him as he worked. Generator sliprods rolled around the crate as it was jostled; Ash moved the weapon to keep them from rolling off the edge. "What are you doing there?"

Uly asked, "Did you see the cyclic rate on those weapons they were using? Your shields will need a fast recovery rate and lots of up-front power, and I can make the mods with this stuff."

"But they were using specialized ammo," Ash put her back to the door, watching the motion sensor on her ARO. "Whatever they're firing, it was designed to cut right through shields."

"Yeah, I remember," he spoke as though distracted, "I'm going to put _everything_ into this generator, but…I'll be keeping you between me and them."

"You're going to _hide behind_ me?" Ash was furious, "That's my _job_, you loon! You're a contractor…a _civilian_! I'll kick your ass if you _don't_!"

Uly glanced self-consciously over his shoulder, then quickly back to his work. "I know…but it…seems unfair."

Ash's sensor display flashed a highlight, showing motion outside, at about 100 meters to the east. "Speaking of unfair, we got bad guys. Not sure if they're moving this way yet. You about done?"

"Slapping an upgrade into your suit is easy. Building a custom mod from spare parts isn't." He worked in silence for a minute, then slid the two halves back together, and turned to the white-armored soldier. "Where's your back…oh." He reached down and picked up the backpanel and SmartPak, fitted the shield generator into place, and held it up. "Turn around, I'll put it on for you."

Ash was still watching the motion sensor; as Uly pressed the back section into place, the interconnects clacked and whirred briefly as they lined up. Her ARO showed a new shield rating of **260**.

"Damn, I didn't even know they could go that high." She pointed, "Don't forget the gun."

He reached for it, brought it up close to his face.

"The saftey's on the other side. Quick, let's go!" She peeked the door open, slid it aside. They ran around to the back of the container, hurried up the hill, and scrambled down the other side.

Uly pointed, "What are those?"

A row of gray, meter-high cylinders on tripods irregularly lined the side of the footpath.

_Dragon's Teeth!_ Ash thought, _God, I can't tell him!_ "They're sure as hell _not ours_. Come on, run!" No matter which way she looked, there seemed to be motion signals on the sensor display. The infrared overlay did not match them, so they had to be more of the attacking robots. She led the way across the path and up another low ridge.

Finally, a motion signal with IFFs…Alliance soldiers! "_There's_ someone," she pointed up the hill, "Over that way. Hurry!"

Ash's sensors showed more robot signals to their left, heading their way, but the short-legged civilian also lacked her fitness and her training. He stumbled on his way down the next rise, crashing through scrub brush and falling. Ash ran back and grabbed one of his arms, "Come on! We can't stay here!" She glanced up, saw the geth approaching. She pushed him to the right, positioning herself between them, raised her rifle and fired, taking down two of the walking robots. "Run!"

They turned right, Ash leading them toward the people signal on the other side of a slight rise. Fast-moving targets appeared on her ARO's sensor overlay. _Flyers_, she thought, _shit!_

As they started downhill, they found themselves running past more Dragon's Teeth. The whine of the flyers was close enough to hear; Ash sprinted past him, then stopped and spun left, firing. "Run, Uly, run! _RUN!_" Some of mechanized impalers were extended, with rapidly-drying human bodies impaled on them. Uly wheezed his way toward her, gaped in horror, stumbled one last time.

The flyers analyzed the situation quickly; the running human was still a threat; they accelerated and closed on her, targeted and fired.

The impact caused her to lose her footing, but the blue bolts simply rebounded from her enhanced shields. Knowing they were close enough to hit, she pulled her sidearm, threw herself onto her back in a skidding halt. As her awareness was accelerated into Firefight mode, her suit VI helped her lead them; three shots took down the two targets.

As the shrapnel fell out of the sky, she leaned up off the ground to see Uly lifted by a pair of the robots onto the impaler; there wasn't even time to call his name as the spike exploded through his back and out his chest, lifting him into the air.

She rolled and dove behind a large boulder, pulling the assault rifle off her back. Flattened against the rock, she realized she'd failed to protect the one civvie who'd managed to save her life.

_What will I tell Maria? Or Miguel and Sabrina?_

She grimaced, but would not cry; that would come later.

Her VI noticed the emotional surge and began releasing adrenaline modifiers to keep her head clear. It displayed on her ARO: ** Stabilon (Combat-grade) in effect.**

When she heard the sound of a robot weapon firing from where she thought the people were, she was suddenly angry. A line from one of her favorite childhood books came to mind, "If we must die today, sell yourselves dearly."

Her back against the rock, she raised her weapon to fire as a man appeared at the top of the ridge; an Alliance soldier! And he didn't look like he was running _from_ something; he fired one of the robots' weapons past her, and another soldier followed, hurling tech grenades ahead of him. The robots exploded in a shower of blue electrical arcs.

The three soldiers ran up to her. One of them - an N7 - asked, "Are you all right?"

Ash's suit systems fought to normalize her biochemistry. But even out of breath, and with her bloodstream flooded with useless and distracting chemicals, she knew enough to identify herself, "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here, sir?"

The N7 indicated the other two soldiers. "We're from the _Normandy_, here to secure a research find. But it looked like you were getting hammered."

"You saw our message? You saw that…_thing_?"

"That...black hand-shaped thing? Only a couple of frames of it, and only an hour ago. Where's the rest of your unit?"

"Oh, man…" Ash felt suddenly distressed, as if she'd been called to account. "We were on patrol, just walking the perimeter, when these things…they looked like rocks…dropped out of the sky." She was getting more traumatized as she recalled the events, "Then they stood up and started shooting at us. We were surrounded…by mechs…and tried to double back, but they were _everywhere_. We got split up. I don't think any of the others…" her eyes flowed over ARO information, "I think…I'm…the only one left."

"This isn't your fault, Williams," Shepard said quickly, "There wasn't anything you could have done." Kaidan stepped up to Ashley's suit, took readings and copied files as Shepard continued, "So…someone airdropped mechs on you?"

"No, not mechs, they were shaped wrong, almost alien-like. Wrong wrong wrong. And they moved too fast, worked together _way_ too well. If they'd been mechs, we've seen…god…forty million credits' worth of them today."

"I'd like to hit you with a cognitive stabilizer," Kaidan interrupted, "It'll help you feel better."

"Do it," Shepard said.

"Not your call, sir," Kaidan reminded him.

"He's right, I need it. And a shot of ET3. I'm going to have goddamned _hysterics_ about the people I lost today, but _this_ is not the time." She glanced intensely over her shoulder, "Come on, what are you waiting for?"

Kaidan shrugged, thumbed a reader on Williams' suit, worked his omnitool.

Ash took a breath, held it, and then exhaled with her eyes closed. "That's better." She raised her left arm, and lit her own omnitool gauntlet. "Nobody knew the ship design. It was too big and too fast. Might be a new species. But my VI is telling me that the robots we saw are…geth." She looked up at Shepard. "Geth?!"

"Crazy, isn't it?" Kaidan nodded, "No one's seen geth beyond the Veil in over two hundred years."

"So they weren't just hiding out, they were building a fleet of dreadnoughts?" Ash shook her head, "And they've had _centuries_ to do it. They could have hundreds of those things!"

"Could they be here for…that…you know…the thing?" Richard asked.

"What, the beacon?" replied Ash. The _Normandy _team looked at her expectantly. "That's what the scientists have been calling it. There's a light on it, and it blinks. Can you imagine? A buried old light that still works."

Shepard exchanged a glance with Kaidan, then turned back to Ash.

"Do you know anything else about it?" Shepard asked.

"No, sir. But the scientists are real excited about it. The dig site is close; it's just at the end of this vale. If you're here to pick up the beacon, it might still be there. I'd heard they didn't want to move it until they had a place to move it _to_."

Shepard held his rifle aloft. "All right. Before we move out, I'm declaring a squad update override; adding Williams to the fireteam in position 4, switch LOSI comms to Main Channel C, scrambler synch on Williams." His suit winked status lights on his ARO as the suit VIs communicated with each other and adjusted.

"Alenko here."

"Jenkins here."

"Williams here, and synch is on me."

"Good," Shepard nodded, satisfied the comm links were updated. He tapped his own faceplate. "Williams, reconfigure your helmet to breather mode for added stealth."

"Sir." She lit her gauntlet, flipped a toggle. Her helmet chinguard extended armor to the bottom of the visor, sealed and pressurized the helmet.

"Can you take us to the dig site, Williams?"

She brought up her rifle and clacked the ammo block into place. "Can do, sir. And if we see some more of those _geth_, it'll be time for payback."

She turned, and hadn't taken two steps before she glanced left and saw the spike with Uly's body on it. She faltered, stopped.

As he approached, Kaiden looked where she was looking. He slowed and stopped by her side. "Was that…did you know him?"

Ash struggled to find words, "He's a friend…he…helped me after my unit had been wiped out. His work…on my shields…is the only reason I'm alive. But I'm…I couldn't…help him." Gritting her teeth, she looked away.

Shepard's ARO popped up a message that Ash's neurotronics were signaling for more ET3. "Alenko, she needs..."

"I got it," the biotic answered, and authorized the release of more of the stabilizer.

Shepard looked grimly at the spike, felt his face contort into a grimace. He asked, "Did they _just_ do this? Can we help him?"

"A few minutes ago," Ash replied, and stepped toward the spike. "I don't know."

Shepard followed, fabbing a tech relay as he approached. "Maybe I can short it out and get him down. If this is just an impaling…" He reached as high as he could, waved his omnitool left and right. Kaiden was just stepping up as Shepard's ARO displayed the readings.

Kaidan looked as if he was simply reading from his gauntlet. "He's…comatose."

Shepard attached the tech relay to the impaler, took a step back, set off a directional EMP. The relay exploded, leaving a hand-sized scorch mark on the impaler, but had no other effect.

Kaiden looked at his own omnitool. "He's in electronic _stasis_. That spike is keeping him alive, but…no fluids are moving. What the hell…?"

Shepard tapped the spike experimentally, it sounded metallic. He pointed east. "Can you catch him in a lift field? I'm going to push him that way."

Kaiden stepped over to where Shepard had indicated. Shepard leaned against the vertical, then stood again. "That's pretty sturdy." He tried lifting the one leg of the tripod; it wouldn't budge. "How are they doing this?" He knelt at the base of the leg, scratched at the dirt beneath it, dug briefly. "It's extended a stake into the ground." He glanced at Ash, "Do you know what this thing is doing?"

"No," she shook her head.

Shepard moved quickly to another leg, pulled up on it; again, no good.

He was getting frantic. He drew his pistol. "Stand back," he said, aiming at the leg. Five rounds left two tiny scratches. He traded his pistol for his shotgun, fired repeatedly. Still nothing.

Now he was feeling incompetent, and it made him angry. He stepped back, pointed up at the body. "Alenko, can you just lift him off there?"

"You bet," answered the biotic, flaring with visible energy.

"Whoa," murmured Richard, "Awesome."

Kaidan lifted a hand, and Uly's arms and legs rose in response, but his body didn't move up the spike.

"Wait a minute." Ash walked up to the tripod, pressed experimentally on the pulsating blue ring. "Corporal, can you give me a handstep?"

"You bet, ma'am." Richard stepped forward, but Kaidan put an arm in his way.

"No, let me. You're still healing. At least give yourself a few more minutes." He approached, linked the fingers of both hands, bent slightly.

Ash put a foot into his hands, her other foot on the ring, and lifted herself up to Uly's body. She pressed upward, but couldn't move him. "Why won't you move," she said with rising intensity, "Uly, why won't you move? Wake up! We've got...to get...you off this." She was straining visibly.

Shepard raised his omnitool again, set to Transopter Medical. The system revealed that the spike had horizontal prongs that must have extended after the original impaling. "The thing's got spikes _sideways_," he said. "And it looks like they're extending from the central…one." He drew back slowly as Ash stepped back down.

They stood silently, each with their own thoughts, but all offended that _this_ – what it was their job to prevent – had happened anyway.

"Sir?" Richard took a step closer, "I think you have to let him go. There's…nothing you can do. Sir."

Kaidan turned. "He's right, we've got to go. We need to secure that beacon."

Reluctantly, Shepard took another step away. "Williams, come on, we're leaving."

Richard looked away and down, not wanting to be looking at Shepard if the Commander looked his way. "Hey look, a shotgun." He looked up again, "At least…he went down fighting."

"It's my shotgun," Ash said. "And he never fired it." She picked it up mechanically, replaced it on her SmartPak.

"Come on, we need to go," Kaidan moved away in the direction Williams had started earlier.

"Right, we've lost some time," Shepard agreed, chiding himself silently, "Thanks for the reminder. Williams, get us to that dig site. Jenkins? How you doing?"

The young Corporal was still looking up at the impaled body. "I'm okay." He patted his own torso quickly, "I'm still okay. I'll be okay," he said, turning.

"Alenko, can Jenkins make double-time?"

Kaidan glanced at the clock on his ARO. "Yeah, he should be fine. I wouldn't jump from two meters, but he should be okay to double-time. You can wiggle your toes, right?"

He stopped, balanced on his right foot, wiggled his left foot. "Yep. Feels like normal. Uh, a little weak, but not hurting."

Shepard stopped, glanced over a shoulder. "Williams, you're on point. Get us there. Okay, everyone, we're double-timing it. We got time to make up. Let's go!" As Williams jogged past him, he continued, "Alenko, two, Jenkins three. I'll bring up the rear. Remember to _check your targets_, we got a field full of civvies."

They had just started jogging when Kaidan asked, "That man was still alive when they stuck him on the spike?"

"Yeah," Ash replied, "Impaling victims instead of just shooting them. There must be a reason." She kicked at a rock as she jogged along, "They want us to _suffer_."

"Classic psychological warfare," Kaidan thought aloud, "They're using terror as a tactic."

"Damn damn dammity damn…" Ash was synchroizing the double-time march to her stream of whispered obscenities, and as she went, she got creative (so to speak). Two more spikes on their left had bodies that were much more shriveled, almost dried-out. Ash jogged along, acting like she wasn't looking at them.

Shepard noted the emotional detachment he was feeling, and silently thanked his own Alliance neural nanotech for keeping his head clear.

_Just at the end of this vale_ turned out to be about half a kilometer. Jenkins had a little trouble keeping up, not because of his injury, but because his brain hadn't stopped pumping out endorphins; he kept falling behind, looking at every vista or plant as if for the first time. Shepard kept him on task.

A window popped open on his ARO: ** Williams, A.: You need a leash for that one?**

Shepard's SRS app popped up a window notifying him that Jenkins' Combat VI had nearly finished compensating for his overreaction. He gestured for a text response, and said, "Give him three minutes. He's green, but has great attitude. And he's _from_ here, so he might react differently."

Williams, leading the way, stopped short of the top of a hill. "They're at the dig site, too. Light 'em up!"

Watching Ash pull her Banshee off her SmartClip and check its settings, Shepard pointed a finger at his Corporal, then right and up to the top of the hill. "Jenkins. Sniper rifle. Top of the hill. Watch for incoming."

Combat direction seemed to help the Corporal focus. "Sir. Sniper rifle. Top of the hill. Will advise of any new targets." He turned and jogged to the top of the next rise. As Richard passed Kaidan, Shepard noticed the lieutenant checking his pistol, a Kessler with biotic hardening.

"Alenko, with me." Shepard pointed briefly at Kaidan, then ahead. "Talk to me, Williams. Whaddya see?" He started forward, gestured for acceleration.

"Bad robots," she answered, "Three of 'em. They moved to cover as we approached. I'm not getting sensor EM, but they're all in cover, and they're between us and the site."

Shepard, now running at a cognitive 2x, switched his ARO to see what Williams' suit was seeing. Nothing was moving or showing on the sensor display.

"Movement, no heat signature?" He pulled his sniper rifle off his back, watched it configure.

"Yes, sir."

"Think they're defending the site?"

"They're positioned behind cover with respect to us, so I'm pretty sure." She gestured to her Combat VI, and the locations of the three geth were added to the display so the team could see it, "I've got a few RPGs left."

"I recommend sniper rifle. Jenkins, you got the twenty on these guys?"

"Yes, sir!" The boyish Corporal sounded eager for combat. _That's dangerous._

"Corporal."

"Sir?"

"You _fit for duty_?"

"Expert, Ready and Able, sir."

_That's better_, Shepard thought. "Good; stay frosty. I'm not writing any letters today." He studied the display. "Alenko, can you Lift that closest one without leaving cover?"

Kaidan peeked the sensor on his helmet up over the top of the rock. "Not from here. But I could probably jump up and get him."

"Team comes first," Shepard said, "You got enough shielding?"

"120-820. I could maybe do it while behind a barrier, but it'd be more accurate without."

"Okay, when you do that, I'm going to stand and take him out; hopefully the other two will come out of cover to fire on me. When they do, Williams, Jenkins, you take them down. Ready?"

Green lights on Shepard's ARO indicated they were. He gestured to accelerate his neurotronics to 4x, replaced his sniper rifle, pulled the geth weapon off his back and waited for it to configure. "Alenko, you call it."

Silence.

"These guys don't move at all, do they?" Kaidan sounded amazed, "This'll be tough." He shifted slightly. "Okay…ready? Go!"

To his left, Shepard watched the biotic spring up, seem to throw a glowing purple ball overhand. The projectile came down on the far side of a rock and seemed to splash; a single geth ascended, writhing in the energy field. Shepard stood quickly with weapon fitted, planted his feet, and held the trigger.

The geth, floating helplessly, erupted in sparks as the high-cyclic weapon tore it to pieces. Shepard may not have needed the high-stability stance for accurately firing the weapon, but it helped him withstand the fire he took from the two geth that turned their weapons on him.

As he dropped back into cover, he noticed that his shields had been completely shot away, but he also saw Ash and Richard firing on the organic-looking robots just before he was safely in cover again.

Giving his shields time to recharge, he poked the scope of his weapon over the top of the rock before remembering he could not use the geth weapon in periscope mode. He traded it to his other hand and quickly pulled his pistol, snapped off the safety and was just in time to see the two remaining geth destroyed.

"I think we got 'em, Commander," said Kaidan.

Shepard allowed himself a smile, "Good work, everyone. Well done." He aimed an index finger back at Richard, "Expert marksmanship, Jenkins; keep it up." As his shields finished recharging, he gestured the acceleration off, and rose from cover to survey the archaeological find; a series of concentric circular platforms, the lowest at center, surrounded by a two-meter wall.

As he approached, his focus on the material prompted the suit VI to analyze it; the spectrometer indicated it was a ceramic polymer composite, and it seemed to have weathered like stone. He lifted his left arm, scanned the post and lintel nearest him. His transopter briefly put callouts on the ARO, showing the interconnecting structure of the joints. This was not the shattered remains of something larger, it had been _buried intact_. A glance at the reinforcing wall just beyond showed it had been under perhaps 30 meters of dirt.

At the back of the dig were four more of the lethal spikes with bodies on them, another grim reminder.

Shepard frowned as he glanced at the mission clock. This was taking too long for just a pickup, but at least they had arrived at the dig site. "Alenko, I assume you're still down on 'gel. Process these things like we did the others. Jenkins, you help him. Williams, show me this beacon." He looked to his right and saw Ash about five meters away, pistol drawn, slowly aiming at the nearest fallen geth and firing deliberately, repeatedly. He counted her shots: three...four...five...six...seven...

Another shot rang out from high ground to the right. Ash's head looked like it exploded in sparks as she was thrown to the ground. **Antimateriel round**, indicated the ARO, putting a callout on the origin point of the shot.

"Williams!" Shepard's VI snapped him instantly into Firefight Mode, the callout locking in on the geth sniper at the top of the ridge. He pulled his pistol off its powerclip and fired before acceleration was fully engaged. Only one of the three shots hit near enough, knocking the shooter back from its perch and deeper into cover. Shepard gestured for 6x acceleration.

A tech relay hummed its way up to the geth; an electrical arc connected them briefly. The robot's left leg extended fully, as if it were trying to jump away, but putting it into Shepard's reticle. Fully accelerated, he was able to put a round right into its camera-eye.

Its body lurched back, then collapsed forward, tumbling off the ridge. Before it could bounce off the cliff face on its way down, Shepard was looking for the rest of the second party. _There should be two more_, he thought. The geth hit ground with a metallic _fump_, and slid to a stop.

Without taking his eyes off the cliff, Shepard pointed toward the fallen Gunnery Chief with his left hand, "Medic!"

Kaidan vaulted over the cover he'd been behind, "Medic on task!"

No other bad guys were visible on Shepard's ARO. Almost unwilling to believe the sensor anymore, he continued to scan for them.

"I'm okay, LT," said Ash. "Just...headache." She steadied herself on the rock nearby.

Kaiden sounded as incredulous as Shepard felt, "That was a _six-gram round_," he held up a hand, thumb and index finger extended, "You should have a hole in your head _this big_."

"I'm at 260-480…" she explained.

"260?!"

Ash sighed, "Uly…saved my life again."

"What?"

"That guy – on the spike – that we couldn't save? His name is…_was _Ulysses Guiterrez. He built this shield mod for me…a few minutes before they…killed him. He'd seen they were tearing through our shields, so he traded recharge speed for strength."

"Yeah, but 260?" Kaidan shook his head, "Well, you can't argue with success."

Shepard gave up trying to find more geth for the moment. "All right, well done. Alenko; good, quick thinking with the relay. Williams…mm…good work getting us all worried."

Ash shook her head, "I'm still worried. Seeing stars. Should be okay in a minute, though."

Kaidan walked around behind her, inspected her suit, "Let me have a look, Chief." He put up a hand to provide some shadow, moved his head to see better. "Well, you sure got the shields for it. I suspect we're all going to want them."

Shepard frowned. "No kidding. These..._geth..._are trouble. They always send more, and they're always getting smarter about us. We really stepped in it this time. But that's why they pay us the big money, right? Williams, where's the beacon?"

Ash looked to the center of the circular array, then left and right. "This is the dig site. The beacon was right here, it must have been moved." She put both hands on the sides of her helmet and adjusted it.

Kaidan stepped up alongside her, facing Shepard. "By who? Our side or theirs?

"Hard to say. Maybe they know more at the research camp." She struggled with her helmet again, then gestured to her suit VI. The helmet opened, and she twisted it, and lifted it off. "Dammit, I think that shot cracked the outer shell." She inspected the helmet, banged a part of it with her left hand, and started to squeeze her head back into it. "Have to have a fabber replace that later."

In the distance, something emitted a hornlike wail, and the lonely sound resonated for a few seconds.

"What was _that_?" Kaidan looked up and left, then right.

"Gemmadarsis Hupfarii," Richard answered immediately. All eyes were instantly on him.

Kaidan recovered first. "What? You just know that?"

"My dad's a zoologist. I happen to know _that one_ because it's a good one for impressing the FOBs...the noobs. _Everyone_ hears that thing, and _everyone_ thinks it's some enormous monster or something." He held his hands up in front of him, a little less than a meter apart. "They're only about this big, _with the legs_."

"We just call 'em thrint," Ash added. "They ingest and excrete through the same hole. That sound is a 'thrint fart'."

Shepard chuckled and nodded approvingly.

Richard rounded quickly on her, "It's not a fart, it's a territorial marker—"

Ash gave him an icy look. "Same. Hole."

"Whatever," Shepard glanced at the spikes, "Come on, team; stay on task. Williams, where are the researchers? Think anyone got out of here alive?"

"If they were lucky. Maybe…hiding in the camp? The research camp's just up that rise," she waved her weapon up the incline.

"Okay, let's get going. We're are now officially behind schedule." Shepard jogged past them, and out of the Prothean circle, turning left up the dirt ramp. "Jenkins, get up here, assault rifle. I want you on point." That _should put some fear and sobriety in him,_ Shepard thought.

"Yes, sir!" By the slight waver in his voice, the directive seemed to have had its intended effect.

Shepard continued, "Team, switch to Assault rifles, maximum cyclic rate, minimum round size. Phasic rounds if you have 'em. Or hammerhead, so you at least get some extra stopping power."

As they jogged up the hill, their comms came alive again, "Change of plans, Shepard; there's a small spaceport just ahead. I want to check it out. I'm going to wait for you there."

"Who's that?" Ash asked.

"It's a Spectre!" Richard said, "We're on a mission with a Spectre!"

"Don't be one of the people that ends up dead," Shepard reminded him. "When you're behind schedule, that's the time to work _smarter_ not _faster_."

Richard stopped jogging as he reached the top of the rise. The first building on their right had fallen off its cantilever, and was billowing smoke. Equipment and debris littered the ground, and as they came further up, more spikes with bodies on them came into view. Everyone avoided looking closely at them, so no one saw the diodes and sensors that covered the emaciated bodies.

"Looks like they hit the camp hard," Ash said.

Kaidan glanced at rocks that might provide cover, "Good place for an ambush. Keep your guard up."

With a metallic shriek, the spikes suddenly retracted, and the bodies seemed to spring to life.

Kaidan stopped, took a step back. "Oh, god…they're still alive…!

The three humanoid things turned on the team and started running toward them.

Ash was clearly horrified, "What did the geth do to them?"

Richard backpedalled quickly, "What are they gonna do to _us_?"

Shepard plucked a grenade off his SmartPak at waist level and flung it at the ground between the team and the husks. "Hit the deck!" As the group of zombie-like things crossed over the disk, his suit VI detected this and detonated the grenade; the resulting explosion blew them to bits.

Richard stumbled backwards, collapsing over Shepard's prone body. "Oof! Ow! Sorry, sir."

Shepard rolled away, noticing the converted people had not retained enough soft tissue to splatter anything. He stood, extended a hand to the Corporal. "Is anyone on our team dead or injured?"

Richard took the proffered hand, and pulled himself unsteadily to his feet. "Thank you, sir. Uh…what?"

"Corporal, is anyone on our team dead or injured?"

Richard glanced quickly around, saw Ash and Kaidan. He looked dazedly back at Shepard, trembling slightly. "Uh…negative, sir."

"Then you have nothing to apologize for. But we still have to find that beacon. And that means finding a science team member who can tell us what happened to it," Shepard clapped him on the shoulder. "Stay sharp. You can do it."

Kaidan was staring at the most intact of the fallen husks, an upper torso twitching one shoulder in a circular motion. It almost looked like it was trying to keep moving toward them. "These…these were _people_?"

Shepard squinted at the remains as it seemed to wind down. "It must take a few hours for the spikes to turn people into these things."

Richard had turned his mic off, but Shepard could see his helmet moving slightly; clearly he was talking. The focus of his attention directed the suit VI to connect and relay the audio.

"–pointed unto man the days of his probation…that by his natural death he might be raised…in immortality unto...eternal life, even as many would believ–" Shepard toggled the audio back to the team's current settings.

"Now we know what those spikes are for," Kaidan said to no one in particular, "Turning our own dead against us."

Shepard turned to Ash. "Do you…want to go back and cremate that guy? Ulysses?"

She returned his look, seemed to be thinking. "I…no. I don't have any fuel to start it. We'd have to split the team up." She looked suddenly angry. "It used to be beautiful here."

Kaiden seemed equally disturbed, "Eden Prime will never be the same again."

Ash pointed, "Two intact prefab units at the far end of the camp."

"Let's go." Shepard turned and started toward the two units.

***** Glossary *****

EM: Electromagnetic [Signature]

FOB: Fresh Off the Boat. New colony arrivals.

LOSI: Line Of Sight Intersuit. A telecom protocol used by the Alliance to allow fireteams to communicate with each other over short distances without having to worry about interception. Primary mode of data exchange is optical, but the fallback radio component is also scrambled.

RPG: Rocket-Propelled Grenade.

SmartPak: an integrated weapons carrier worn as the back panel for compatible standard armor types. Active hardpoint controllers are linked to standard combat VIs so that a soldier has only to reach for the weapon for it to unlock and begin decompaction. Also automatically connects to weapons and allows them to finish compaction when being secured.

SRS: Squad Realtime Status

thrint: name originally given to an alien race in a series of stories by Larry Niven. Because this story's timeline shares our history, these fictional aliens are also known to the SF fans of this event scheme just as Jules Verne or H.G. Wells are known to us.

ThruView: Sirta Foundation's brand name for their proprietary version of transopter technology. See transopter. Integration of ThruView with standard omnitools allows for Virtual Reality Simulations (VRS).

transopter: Scanning technology for "at arm's length" analysis. Combines infrared, Doppler ultrasound and remote specific gravity arrays to construct a 3D model in virtual space that can be superimposed on a user's omnitool ARO.


	5. Chapter 5: Nihlus Kyrick

A/N - There are terms and acronyms in here that may be unfamiliar; each chapter has a glossary at the end so you can flip down to the bottom, find out what it is, and then go back. (I tried it with the full name in parentheses, but it was too distracting to the scene and dialogue flow.)

This chapter is rated MA for death, a firefight, and language.

***** Nihlus Kyrick *****

Shepard stayed at 2x acceleration, set his sensors to maximum, jogged over to the lefthand module. The door and windows were wide open. It looked like a stateroom space for two, open to enjoy what would normally be beautiful weather; a couple of chairs and bunks with a couple of displays each, plus some storage. The airlock, fully collapsed into a niche on the wall opposite the door, looked as if it had never been used.

Kaiden, Ash, and Richard stepped in behind him. Shepard looked around for a working GPC or VI terminal. "Alenko, find me the local network and see if there are any users still online. Williams, do you know any of the scientists here? Any names I can start looking for when we connect?"

"Doctor Warren was in charge of the dig, she's an archaeologist from…uh…Cornell? Cambridge? I forget. The three other researchers…uh…two humans and an alien…I don't know their names."

"Got it; we're connected to the net," Kaidan said, "I'm logged in to their DCE, but I don't see any other active users."

"I suppose we shouldn't be surprised," Shepard glanced out at the rest of the camp, "Do we know how many people were here?"

"Normal complement has been the four original researchers, they bunked in the main building." Ash pointed out the windows at the fallen and smoking structure. "They had just brought in four more full-timers, and the 212 helped them set up these units. They have some local contractors that come out and do some of the administrative stuff. I think they have a local chef, too. Doctor Warren is afcRNA-resistant GFCF, and she likes talking menus. I think that's just because she could pull strings at the university, though."

Shepard walked out as she was talking; Ash and the rest of the team followed. As they approached the second prefab, she pointed, "That door. It's closed. Security lock's engaged." She traded her assault rifle for her shotgun, raised its muzzle to the magnetic lock.

"Wait," Shepard said, "The world doesn't end today. This might be usable later if we don't blow the lock off." As he stepped up to the door, he replaced the geth rifle on his back and raised his left arm to the lock. "Never destroy what you might be able to use." He switched to a remote hardware mode, and held his left hand to the side of the controller.

A green diode lit as it connected, and he touched the ENTER key. A circular array appeared on his ARO, and highlighted the four keys that showed any wear. Shepard clicked his way through them until he had discovered the code, and when the indicator switched from red to green, and he tapped it.

The door grumbled open, and something inside rustled.

Shepard put a hand near his face, gestured the command to crack the seal on his helmet, but left his visor down. "Hello? Anyone here?" He peeked his pistol around the corner slowly, seeing what it saw: humans. He pulled the weapon back quickly, stepping out where she could see him.

The red-haired woman slowly put down the makeshift club. "Humans! Thank the Maker."

A hoarse whisper followed from the shadows behind her, "Hurry! Close the door...before they come back!"

"Dr. Warren…you're safe!" Ash looked more than relieved, like she wanted to hug the other woman, but was managing to restrain herself.

The initial relief at seeing Ash was quickly replaced by caution. "Who are you?"

"I'm Commander Shepard of the _Normandy_. This is Lieutenant Alenko, Corporal Jenkins…and it seems you already know Chief Williams."

"Yes, she was in charge of the volunteers from the base who have been helping us."

Shepard turned to Ash. "That CID you mentioned?"

"Yes, sir."

Shepard asked Warren, "Are you injured? How did you get here?"

"The soldiers who were here…if they hadn't been, we'd have been killed, too. We hid here during the attack. They…whoever brought those mechs…must have come here for the beacon."

"Did they get it?"

"No," Doctor Warren looked at Manuel as if with a newfound respect. "Luckily, it wasn't here. Manuel insisted, so it was moved earlier this morning. Manuel and I stayed behind to pack up the camp. These modules are from the colony's General Pool, not the university, so they were to be transported to their next assignment." She looked down, spoke more slowly, "When the attack came, the marines held them off long enough for us to hide. They…the four of them...gave their lives to save us."

"Saved?" The man seemed shocked, "No one is _saved_. The age of humanity is ended. Soon, only ruin and corpses will remain…!"

Shepard ignored him. "What else can you tell me about what happened?

"It all happened so fast. One second, we were gathering up our equipment, the next, we were hiding in the shed while those things swarmed over the camp."

The man kept muttering to himself, "Agents of the destroyers…bringers of darkness…heralds of our destruction…!"

Doctor Warren glanced at him, then continued, "We could hear the battle outside…gunfire, screams…I thought it would never end. Then, everything went quiet. We just sat there, too afraid to move. Until you came along."

"Can you tell me about this thing you discovered? Williams said you were calling it a beacon?"

"It's a type of data module, from a galaxy-wide communications network. Remarkably well preserved. It could be the greatest scientific discovery of our lifetime. Miraculous new technologies…ground-breaking medical advances…who knows what secrets are locked inside?"

Dr. Manuel gibbered, oblivious of anyone else in the structure, "We have unearthed the heart of evil…awakened the beast…_we have breached the darkness!_"

"Manuel, please. This isn't the time."

Shepard studied the man. His ARO switched to Analysis and covered the man with callouts about his left-handedness, the fact that he had taken several falls, blood pressure and pulse, and the fact that he was telling the truth with almost 94% certainty. "I've seen shell shock, and battlefield panic, but your…ah…associate there seems unusually disturbed."

Dr. Warren looked pained. "Manuel has a brilliant mind, but he's always been a bit…unstable. Two of the marines…who were protecting him. They were killed right in front of him."

"Is it madness to see the future?" Manuel had his hands to the sides of his head, "To see the destruction rushing towards us? To understand there is no escape…no _hope?!_ No…I am not _mad_…I'm the only sane one left!"

Dr. Warren shrugged. "I gave him an extra dose of his meds after the attack…just a few minutes ago."

"You gonna be okay here?"

She pointed to her omnitool. "The cargo hovers are on their way; they should be here in an hour. They'll take the intact modules out. I expected to ride out with them."

Shepard looked over his shoulder. "The whole colony's been disrupted; they might be delayed. But I think you'll be safe here if you stay locked up." He glanced out the door. "We've still got time to make up. Williams, get us to that spaceport." Ash nodded, led the way out of the module.

As Richard and Kaidan followed her, Shepard turned to the civilians and said, "We'll stop this. Stay safe."

Manuel continued, "You can't stop it. Nobody can stop it! Night is falling…the darkness of eternity…!"

"Hush, Manuel, go lie down. You'll feel better once the medication kicks in." She turned back to the team, looking almost apologetic. "Good luck, Commander."

"Luck won't save you," Manuel rasped quietly as Shepard exited the module.

_And don't I know it_, Shepard thought.

Ash had turned to the right as she exited, had taken only a few steps to the east before speaking. "We can get to Douglas faster by the maglev. Come on, it's this way." She led the way around the corner and up a slight rise. "Crap, that guy was always kind of weird. But now he's over-the-top nuts."

"With a cherry on top," Kaidan agreed. He stopped suddenly, "Hey, there's some biotic effect here." He waved his omnitool past his weapon, held it up for Shepard to see.

Shepard was just catching up; he looked at Kaidan's holo interface. "What?"

"I'm a biotic, right? Don't want to render my sidearm useless as a side-effect. So I have a sensor that lets me know if there's something detectable…you know, like thermal tolerances that keep parts from moving correctly."

"You can render your own weapon nonfunctional?" Richard seemed incredulous.

"Not only _can_ I…over time, I _will_. This is my eighth pistol in as many years; the Kesslers seem to last the longest for me. Anyway, the effects are measurable, and this is showing signs of having walked through an east-spin biotic field."

Richard walked back to where they were standing. "What does that mean? One of us is biotic? And doesn't know it?"

Kaidan chuckled. "Keep dreaming. No, it just means that we might have just walked past or through a biotic field. It could be one of the workers is a biotic, and did something highly energetic here. Or it could be the bad guys are using biotics, and did so here, too. All it boils down to is that I don't know what caused it...so keep your guard up."

Shepard asked, "What even gave you a clue about this?"

Kaidan shrugged. "I felt it." He put a hand to the back of his neck. "Here. It's not uncommon, but I wanted to make you aware."

Shepard nodded. "Good work, Alenko. Williams, you have any ideas about this? Any biotics in your unit?"

"No, sir. This…uh…isn't a high profile installation."

Richard was prowling the local network for his family, and didn't look up from his omnitool. "Well, it wasn't an hour ago."

Shepard gestured for the map on his ARO and added, "Okay, seal up your suits again; we're still in a fight. Williams, how fast can you get us to the spaceport?"

"We can take the maglev; the station is just ahead. We can be there in thirty minutes, tops."

"All right, Chief, get us there pronto."

Ash snapped into command mode. "Double-time it to the station, let's go!"

**# # #**

Even with two platoons of fully armed geth, Saren had been unable to find where the humans had hidden the beacon. There had been no interrogation, they had simply been slaughtered. As far as he could tell, this was at the direction of Sovereign; Saren considered it a mistake to kill all the humans before the necessary information had been extracted.

He stalked across the terminal's dock, looking for some sign of the beacon.

Although no explanation had been given, Sovereign had impressed upon him the importance of finding the beacon, and Saren only partly trusted the ancient intelligence that inhabited the vast starship. It had guarded the galaxy for millennia against some threat Saren did not yet understand. Although it remained something of a mystery to him, Saren was quite sure it was responsible in some way for the creation of the Citadel. Anything with that sort of capability demanded respect, of course…but no more respect than an antimatter weapon.

His full-time Augmented Reality Appliance (ARA) alerted him to the walking approach of an unknown; the display showed it was not one of the geth. Rather than kill the new arrival, Saren hoped he would be able to get some useful information. He kept his back turned, but his ARA made it as clear as if he'd had eyes in the back of his head.

**Nihlus Kryik**, the ARA informed him.

Saren watched with something like amusement as Nihlus flattened himself against cover.

Nihlus glanced down at his in-suit display, looked at Saren, and again at the display. He leaned out, and then stepped completely out of cover. "Saren!?"

"Nihlus."

Nihlus' reaction was at first confusion, "This isn't your mission, Saren. What are you doing here?"

_So they sent a Spectre_, Saren thought. _The Council must have some sense of the importance of this, but he clearly knows nothing about the location of the beacon._ Saren approached his fellow Spectre, touched his shoulder reassuringly as he stepped behind Nihlus, then armed his pistol with a thought. "The Council thought you could use some help on this one."

With relief at being able to share the burden of a mission gone spectacularly wrong, Nihlus turned and looked almost irresistibly at Sovereign, parked in the distance. "I wasn't expecting to find the geth here. The situation is bad."

"Don't worry. I've got it under control."

A single shot to the upper kavori silenced the turian Spectre. Saren felt a rush of approval. Of course, a Spectre would have no backup.

**THE BEACON IS FOUND**, Sovereign informed him.  
><strong>WE DEPART.<br>****DESTROY THIS PLACE.**

Saren unconsciously tilted his head back and clenched a fist. If the beacon was still here, he might be able to find out why Sovereign wanted it. He had hoped to find the beacon first, activate it in the way Sovereign had shown him, and get its message. But now that it had been found, Sovereign only wanted it destroyed.

_But why?_ Saren had wondered, _What don't you want anyone to know?_

He gestured a link to the geth at his command. "Purge this place," he ordered, "Kill anything that moves, then join us at the spaceport in 45 minutes. Units unable to depart will self-destruct."

His geth acknowledged the message.

**# # #**

As they jogged toward the maglev station, Shepard heard a single gunshot in the distance.

His ARO identified the shot as having come from a Carnifex. "That wasn't a geth weapon," he said, "Someone's in trouble." As he reached for his rifle, the stock extended into his hand. "Get to cover; keep 'em at range. Sniper rifles; hilltop ten and two, give me intel. Come on!" He noticed there was no return fire, nor a second shot. _It may already be too late_, he realized.

The air started to shake; in the distance, something black and knifelike rose on a red plume into the sky. It was too big to miss; an enormous ship, easily the size of a dreadnought, had somehow landed on the surface of this one-gee world, and now it was lifting off. It appeared to be using chemical rockets, which seemed absurdly inefficient, but the ululating wail was simply _wrong_.

Kaidan slowed and stopped. "What…is _that_? Off in the distance?"

Ash switched to her rifle's scope view and sighted the thing, "It's a ship! Look at the size of it!"

Shepard's ARO added, **Range: 13 km**

"It's at the spaceport!" Richard sounded panicked.

**Warning**, flashed in front of them, callouts highlighting the geth. Three more spikes retracted with their distinctive squeal and grisly payload. Shepard recoiled at the sight of them; it took almost a full second for him to recover. "Bad guys at twenty meters, get to cover!" He replaced his sniper rifle on the SmartPak, drew his pistol. "Short range; shotguns if you got 'em!"

"Bad Robots at fourty meters," Ash added, "_Stay_ in cover!" Shepard's ARO only showed the approaching husks, but as he extended his pistol out for its view, he saw Ash stand with her shotgun and blow the zombies away with a trio of quick shotgun blasts. Geth snipers coordinated fire on her, but only gave their positions away to Richard and Kaidan; as the first tumbled out of cover from a biotic Throw, Richard put a bullet into a component more critical than he'd guessed; the geth exploded, an arm flying out of the cloud and bouncing to a stop. Richard let out a whoop, "Gotcha!"

A tech grenade slipped into Shepard's palm; he bolted across an opening and lobbed it toward the second sniper. A bolt of blue destroyed it as the nearest geth leapt to new cover, but found itself lifted into the air; a second shot from Richard ended it noisily.

"Watch for a third!" Shepard stayed focused on his ARO for any motion.

Seconds ticked slowly by.

"They can wait all day for us." Ash stood again, walked toward the station's unfinished foundation.

"Careful, Chief," Kaidan warned, "Just because you know you're walking into a trap doesn't immunize you."

"You're preachin' to the choir, LT."

Shepard used his pistol's electronic sight as his suit VI switched on every other medium of sensor he had. "Still can't see 'em," he said, "Be careful."

Ash walked slowly forward, looking left and right into cover. "Come on, you bastard," she murmered, "Just poke your little flashlight head out where I can see it…"

More tense seconds as she tried to draw fire or find the last geth – preferably both – before realizing she had walked past where she'd seen motion.

She bent around a final rock and stood up. "I don't get it."

"Do we have any way of detecting them?"

Kaidan, his back against a rock, didn't look up from his omnitool. "Workin' on it…"

"Are you using your sensors, ma'am?" Richard asked, "You might be able to see metals or whatever they're made of…"

"I'm looking all right, but not seeing anything."

**Alenko, K.: It feels like they're just waiting for us.**

"Maybe there were only two of them?" Richard sounded like he didn't even believe it himself.

"Unlikely," Shepard wanted that thought out of their heads until they had data, "Jenkins, how fast can you deploy a microUAV?"

"Armed?"

"No, just for sentry. Camera and sensors."

"Uh…just a minute, sir."

"Launch when ready. Find me that bad guy, or confirm there are no others within a hundred meters."

With his sensors in Combat mode, he could hear the faint buzz of Richard's omnitool as it stopped, and a _cha-klik_ as he snapped a power cell into place.

"Drone aloft," Richard said, flicking his wrist. The drone's camera appeared as a translucent inset on all their AROs; the fisheye view was momentarily dizzying as it climbed to about 20 meters while staying centered on Chief Williams.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Richard sang softly.

A geth staggered out from behind a wall to their _left_, Richard sprang up and sighted in on it.

Ash's weapon chattered as she turned, already firing on the motion she saw to the _right_. The geth, with just its rifle and scope peeking over a rock, exploded sideways.

Richard fired, and the first geth, unarmed, collapsed with a second hole in its torso.

Ash was suddenly angry, "That was _bait_, and you fell for it! If you're hunting them and they know it, and you know they know it, you _never_ shoot the first _obvious_ target!"

"Steady, Chief," Shepard said, "This is his first fight."

"Well it'll be his _last_ if he isn't careful!"

"Sorry, ma'am. Sorry, sir." He reached out a hand and caught the drone as it fell toward him. "Hey, look. Another camping module. Looks locked."

The rest of the team turned to where he was pointing. There was indeed another P8 container, and the control pad was glowing red. As they approached, Shepard thought he could see between the slats; there were people inside.

He touched a key on his forearm and switched briefly to PA mode; he rapped on the door with armored knuckles. "Hello? Anyone in there?"

Ash and Richard kicked dirt on the burning shipping container as Kaidan stooped to inspect a small canister nearby.

There was no answer from inside. Shepard brought sensors to bear; his ARO showed three infrared sources. He banged on the door again. "Are you okay in there? We're Alliance, offering aid. Hello?"

The fire had been reduced to smoldering as the other soldiers gathered at the door. Kaidan offered a fresh grenade to Shepard. "Thanks."

Kaidan nodded, turned away quickly.

Shepard raised an arm to the door control, made short work of the lock.

Apparently this was enough to get some response from the people inside; a man's voice said, "Everybody stay calm out there. We're coming out, and we're not armed!"

Three people came out the door; the one woman asked, "Is it safe? Are they gone?"

Shepard held up his hands to reassure them, "You're okay…we took care of them."

The older man glanced nervously around, "Those things were crawling all over the shed. They would have found us for sure. We owe you our lives."

"I still can't believe it," the woman was nearly frantic, "When we saw that ship, I thought it was all over."

Apparently his nerves were making the older man chatty, too; he pointed with one hand, drew a line across the sky where he had seen the enormous black ship. "It showed up right before the attack. I knew it was trouble as soon as we saw it, so we made a break for the sheds."

Shepard nodded. "Tell me everything you remember about the attack."

"Me and the rest of the Day Crew were working the crops when that ship showed up. We just saw it and ran." He hesitated, looked guilty. "I don't know what happened to the rest of the crew."

The other man gestured, "They were by the garage over near the spaceport, right where that ship came down. No way they survived."

The woman was emphatic, almost hysterical, "You don't know that; we survived! If they made it to the garage, they could've had a fighting chance!"

Shepard continued, "Do you know anything about the Prothean beacon they dug up?"

The man shrugged, "We're just farmers. We heard they'd found something out there, but it never really mattered to us. Not until now."

"What else can you tell me about the ship you saw?"

"I was too busy running to get a clear look at it."

"Tell them about the noise, Cole…that awful noise."

Cole looked back at Shepard, "It was emitting some kind of signal as it descended. Sounded like the shriek of the damned, only it was coming from inside your own head." He tapped his forehead with a finger.

Shepard illuminated his omnitool gauntlet, held it up as if to show it. "You could hear it on your audio player?"

"No, it was actually _in my head_, not like listening to music." He held up a bare arm, "I thought there was something wrong, so I took mine off."

"It was exploiting _neurotronics_?" Kaidan took a step back.

"Whatever it was, it felt like it was tearing right through my skull. Almost made it impossible to think."

_Not much useful info to be gained here_, Shepard realized, "Thanks for your help; we have to go."

The younger man muttered, "Hey, Cole, we're just farmers. These guys are soldiers. Maybe we should give them th—"

Cole rounded on him, "_Cheese_ us, Blake, you've gotta learn when to _shut up_."

Shepard waited until the man turned and faced him again; they met his eyes only briefly before the other man looked away. "There anything you'd like to tell me, Mister Cole?"

The older man sighed, "Some guys at the spaceport were running a small smuggling ring. Nothing major. In exchange for a cut of the profits, we let them store packages in our sheds."

Shepard pointed into the P8 shed, "You mean all the stuff in there is contraband?"

"No, no…not like that. It's all ICHUS hardware, but they have a tricked out fabber…some Super Whiz-Bang Whatchamacallit. They turned off the FRM chip or something. They can make some stuff before the licenses hit public air. Yesterday I got a pistol from them." He patted his pocket. "I figured it'd come in handy if those things came back."

"He said he took care of them, Mike," the woman swatted the back of his head, "Give it up!"

Reluctantly, he pulled the weapon from his pocket and held it out between finger and thumb.

Shepard's ARO identified it:

**Devlon Stinger r8  
>Alliance Issue Only<br>Public Avail Pending**

He took the weapon and passed it to Ash for inspection.

"That's an Eight, all right," she said, "Real good print, too. Prefer the Stiletto, myself."

Jenkins was looking at his own pistol, a Stinger r4. "Can I trade up? We can leave them with a way to defend themselves, and I get an upgrade."

Ash reached out her left hand, took Richard's pistol, handed the older Devlon weapon to the farmer. Focusing on the newer weapon, she clacked the ammoblock into place, snapped off the safety, turned and fired a round into the dirt to her right, refreshed the ammoblock. She regarded the pistol once more before clicking the safety back on and handing it to the Corporal. "Have that serviced with a VI," she said, "Or me, if we get back to base."

"We're risking our lives to save this colony," Shepard said patiently to the man, "You sure there isn't anything else that could help us?"

From another pants pocket, Cole produced an ammoblock. "Hammerhead rounds. State of the art. I'm sure they're worth a fortune."

"They are when you're trying to stop bad guys from killing you," Ash growled, "Who's your contact at the spaceport, Cole?" She wasn't shaking him by his lapels, but only because he didn't have them. "What's his name?"

"He's not a bad guy," Cole said slowly, "I don't want to get him in trouble. Besides, I'm not a snitch."

Shepard still found it trying to deal with people who didn't have the same information he did, but he had learned that patience got much better results long-term. "He might have something to do with this whole attack, Mister Cole. We need a name. It's important."

"Yeah, okay; you're right. His name's Powell. He works at the local dock…if he's still alive."

"Thanks, Mister Cole," Shepard nodded toward the other two in turn, "Ma'am. Sir. Be safe." Shepard turned quickly to the team, "Come on, we're getting later by the minute, and now I'm thinking those guys may have left with the beacon already."

The Gunnery Chief was a woman of action, and this order suited her just fine. She turned and jogged off, "Yes, sir! Come on team, double-time it!"

"So who was shooting?" Kaidan asked as they jogged towards the unfinished train station, "There must be someone here…"

"If you don't have your shields all powered up, do it now," Shepard said. "Williams, with your shields…well, frankly, you're a tank. You up for point? Can you get us on that train?"

"Yes, sir! Let's get the bastards!" She sounded angry…and unbalanced. She checked the settings on her rifle and raced ahead.

Shepard gestured for messaging. As the window opened, he said, "Kaidan: You still have eyes on her chemistry? Can we even offer any help?"

The two made eye contact. Kaidan nodded, then shook his head; _Yes, I'm still monitoring__,_ and _No, we can't help._ He finished with a thumbs-up; _She'll be okay._

As he turned, Kaidan said, "Nihlus!" and broke into a run. "Man down!"

Shepard turned and followed the Lieutenant's path; a turian lay on the entrance deck, a spatter of blood around his head. He started to run; faster when he realized it was indeed Nihlus.

"Should we call the _Normandy_? Sir?" Richard asked as he ran.

"Let's see how bad he is," Shepard answered, "You've already had a big day. You know what it's like."

Ash had stopped running when she saw. "A turian. You know him?"

"He's a Spectre," Kaidan answered, "He was…part of our mission."

Jenkins sounded like he wasn't quite sure how to feel about it. "I think he thought he was _our_ backup."

Shepard ran up to the body and stopped as his ARO displayed a warning. "I have some first aid for turians in my Library, but it's a couple of months old."

Jenkins pointed, "Can you link into _his _library?"

"He's a Spectre. His VI might get unhappy and aggressive if I tried anything suspicious, but…" He worked his omnitool interface, found a p-net channel. "But he's a dead duck if we just let him lie there." He dropped a medigel packet in front of Kaidan, "Here, get that stuff in his head, I think I've connected to his VI."

Kaidan was kneeling, scanning with his omnitool's transopter. "It looks bad." He snapped up the medigel, ripped the top off, squeezed the contents into the open wound.

"_Bad?_" Ash was looking over his shoulder, pointed at the wound, "That's an _assassination_. Look, the entry goes up into the head through that…"

"Kavori," Shepard, accelerated to 4x, read from his display. "Williams, do you have any medi-gel?"

"Not anymore," she said bitterly.

"We can't let this guy stay dead," Shepard turned to Richard, "Not on my watch, anyway. Jenkins, how much omnigel do you have?"

"Ninety-four, sir."

"Give fifty to Alenko, go back up the hill and gel those bad robots. Gel the husks if you can. Use your knife to cut them up first, and don't get squeamish. Williams, go with him, I want you on High Sentry watch up to one hundred meters DMT. Stay in touch with each other and with me. Get moving."

As the younger man was handing over an interlocked stack of cookie-shaped omnigel units, Ash turned and clapped him on the shoulder, "Alright, come on, kid." She jogged back to the nearest geth wreckage, practically towing Richard along.

"I'm not a kid," Richard squawked, "Hey…go easy. Still healing here."

Shepard toggled his comm, spoke privately to Kaidan. "You have a second fabber that does molecular-resolution stuff, right? Can you make medi-gel with it?"

Kaidan looked startled, then seemed to get over it. "Yes, but it's slow. It'll take maybe eight to twelve minutes to make one medigel pack."

"Get started. When they come back, be on the other side, using your transopter. Nihlus' VI is telling me he'll need four packs, and I only have three left. Which leaves us no room for error in completing this mission without getting shot at…unless you can make some more."

"I'm on it."

"Victor Indigo, sentry mode," Shepard started to sit down where he could work easily on the turian, "Switch back to normal comm. Give me helmet views for Williams and Jenkins. Update link to Nihlus' VI."

The response message from the Spectre's suit was surprisingly fast: **Medical emergency. Assistance required.**

"Nihlus' suit, tell me what to do," Shepard said.

The VI displayed concise instructions, as each step was finished, the next was displayed. Shepard thought the turian's suit might be using his camera under a First Responder protocol, but didn't take the time to check; it was enough that the thing was helping him.

As Shepard pulled his hands away, the suit collar closed an opaque dome over Nihlus' head. Indicator lights switched on, first red, then green.

**Return body to Spectre Office. Well done, Alliance Commander Shepard.**

Kaidan could not see the text messages, but the suit sealing itself was easy to understand. "Well…thanks for caring," he said with a shrug.

Shepard looked up. "Yeah…that's almost exactly what it said. We gotta drag this guy along now?" He shook his head, gestured the message window closed, put two fingers to his ear, "Williams, Jenkins. Talk to me." His VI identified the named parties and toggled back to LOSI before transmitting.

"I gelled two of them and maxed out," Richard answered, "So I gave as much to…uh…Chief Williams as she could take, and I'm working on number three."

Shepard pointed to Kaidan's left legpocket inquisitively. The biotic raised the single, finished medigel pack.

Shepard nodded, gestured for him to get started on a second pack. "All right, we've wrapped Nihlus up, but we'll have to find a way to get him to the _Normandy_. Get back down here."

"On our way, sir," said Ash, "Never saw any sign of hostiles."

"Thanks; good to know."

Shepard gestured again for a private channel to Kaidan, "Can you let that thing run while we're heading for the spaceport?"

"I left it running already. It's slow, but not power-hungry."

"Expert choice," Shepard nodded approvingly.

Ash and Richard came trotting down the hill and across to the platform. "How's Mister Nihlus? He gonna make it, sir?"

Shepard looked at the body and shook his head. "I don't know. The suit VI gave instructions, and when it was done, it sealed itself up. I assume he's in stasis or something." He worked the omnitool controls.

Richard walked around Nihlus, looking closely. "Is that his helmet?"

"It closed over him after we had done all the VI asked," Kaidan shrugged. "It probably wouldn't have bothered with medigel if he was a corpse."

"Then why isn't he awake?"

Shepard nodded at his omnitool. "Seems turians estivate when they're severely wounded. They also have some requirements about waking him back up. I think it's religious. Twelve stages of Death, and apparently he's not all the way there." He lowered his omnitool and sighed. "Crap. Now we gotta drag this guy along and still try to finish—"

Something to their left shifted and crunched on the ground; Ash spun, weapon up. "Halt! Who goes there?"

***** Glossary *****

afcRNA: active fast-coding RNA. Therapeutic fcRNA designed to alter one's personal genome permanently, but to do so fast enough that the autoimmune system doesn't have time to react adversely before the change is complete.

ARA: Augmented Reality Appliance. Implanted form of Augmented Reality system most often used by people with disabilities; more expensive, but uses BMI (Brain-Machine Interface) that requires user training, and sometimes interferes with the autoimmune system.

ARO: Augmented Reality Overlay

BMI: Brain-machine Interface

CID: Colonial Infrastructure Detail

DCE: Distributed Computing Environment

DMT: Doppler Motion Tracker. Remote, relatively close-range motion and mapping system.

FRM: Fabrication Rights Management

GFCF: Glucose Free Casein Free. Lifestyle choice for people who are allergic to casein and glucose.

GPC: General Purpose Computer

ICHUS: International Council on Home User Safety. An Earth-based NGO focused on 3D printer safety, but largely controlled by product-development groups like Matsushita, Foxconn, General Electric, Caterpillar, and others.

neurotronics: neurological electronics, usually with a suite of apps that include telecom, media playback, medical monitoring, navigation, and a BMI for most DCE.

PA: Public Address


	6. Chapter 6: CityKillers

A/N - There are terms and acronyms in here that may be unfamiliar; each chapter has a glossary at the end so you can flip down to the bottom, find out what it is, and then go back. (I tried it with the full name in parentheses, but it was too distracting to the scene and dialogue flow.)

This chapter is rated MA for death, a firefight, and language.

***** CityKillers *****

The stubble-faced man stumbled backwards, hands up defensively, "Wait! Don't—don't shoot! I'm one of you, I'm human!"

Shepard was relieved to see another breathing civilian. "Hey, it's all right. You're alive, and we're glad to see you. What were you doing?"

"I'm sorry, I was hiding…from those creatures. My name's Powell…Powell Carpenter. I saw what happened to that turian. The other one shot him."

"What do you mean? Can you tell me what happened?"

The man was frantic; he was nearly babbling. "The other one got here first. He was waiting when your friend showed up. He…he called him Saren. I think he knew him. Your friend seemed to relax. He let his guard down…and Saren killed him. Shot him right in the back. A…I'm just lucky he didn't see me behind the crates."

"We were told a Prothean beacon was sent to the spaceport. What happened to it?"

Powell stuck a thumb over his shoulder. "Already left...it's on the other platform by now. That Saren guy hopped on the transport as soon as he shot your friend. I knew that beacon was trouble. Everything's gone to hell since we found that thing. They killed everyone…everyone! If I hadn't been back there, I'd be dead, too."

"How come you're the only one who survived?"

"They never had a chance. I…I was already behind the crates when the attack started."

Kaidan squinted, "Wait a minute. You were hiding behind the crates _before_ the attack started?"

Powell recoiled as if he'd just been caught. He seemed to think for a few seconds, then shrug resignedly. "Sometimes I need a little nap to get through my shift. I sneak off behind the crates to catch a few Zs where Paolo can't see me from the tower."

Ash sounded disgusted, "You survived because you're _lazy_?"

Kaidan didn't quite look over his shoulder at the spikes. "If you hadn't snuck off for that nap, you'd probably be dead just like all the others."

The man seemed to deflate. "Yeah…yeah, I guess. I don't really want to think about it."

Shepard nodded once. "Okay, then what else can you tell us about the geth attack?"

"It was quick. One minute that ship was descending, the next, those things were swarming over the platform. Thousands of them. They must have been inside that mother ship. They shot everything that moved. It was a massacre."

"Where are the bodies?" Richard asked, "Can we offer any first aid?"

Powell raised a shaking arm toward the spikes, then turned away quickly.

Ash looked around where they were standing, "But not all of them?"

"I don't know…_I don't know!"_ Powell put his hands to his head, took a step back.

Shepard raised his hands assuringly, "Hey, it's okay. Is there anything else you can tell us about the beacon?"

"They brought it here this morning. We loaded it up on the train and sent it to the spaceport. Hard to believe that was only a few hours ago. Feels like a whole other life."

Shepard paused thoughtfully. "I wonder what prompted that Manuel guy to send it to the spaceport…?"

"What?" Powell seemed confused.

"Sorry…thinking out loud. Tell me about this mothership you saw."

Powell looked up where he had apparently see the ship go by, almost reliving it. "I've never seen anything like it before. It…it was huge, it landed over near the spaceport." He started poking at his own forehead, "The whole place got dark as it came down. It was making this noise, this…this _sound_ that bored right into your brain. That's what woke me up. The attack came a few minutes later."

Kaidan waved a finger thoughtfully at Powell. "You're Cole's contact here on the docks. For the smuggling ring."

"What? No! Ah…I mean…what does it matter now? So I'm a smuggler, who cares? Paolo's dead, everyone else is dead…it doesn't matter now, does it?"

"Anything hidden nearby that we could use against the geth?"

"A shipment of grenades came through last week…and nobody seems to notice a few pieces missing...if you cut them off at the dividers."

"That's hard to believe," Kaiden muttered.

Ash took a couple of steps toward the man, "You greedy son of a bitch, we're out here risking our lives and you—"

Shepard turned his head quickly, "Chief!" He looked at Powell again, realized he had become the Good Cop. "No, I mean something big, like a Grizzly or an APC of some kind. We have to get to the spaceport. Quickly."

The colonist looked at Shepard as if he'd asked for a winning lottery ticket. "We don't get that stuff at this end. That all drops in at the Alliance camp. The piddly stuff they send out here…I never thought you'd actually need _grenades_. Who'd want to attack Eden Prime? We're just a bunch of farmers; how was I supposed to know?"

Shepard noted the time on his ARO mission clock. "We still need to get to that beacon before it's too late."

Powell waved vaguely to his right. "Take the cargo train, it goes straight there, and that's where the other turian went anyway." He turned away, "I can't stay here. I have to go home. I…need to get away from all this."

Ash held up a hand, "Wait…Commander, do we want to have him take this turian back to Endo Memorial? It's the nearest major hospital short of going all the way to Constant. Even if they can't fix him there, they'll be able to hold him until the turians can pick him up."

Shepard turned, "Can you do that, Powell? Can you take our friend to Endo Memorial?" Shepard's ARO read the man's face, indicated the subtle cues he was giving; he might be swayed with some encouragement. "It'll be a problem if we have to take him with us, but I don't want to lose a team member to do it."

"I…I can't do that. It's far. And dangerous!"

"It's sure to be safe at the hospital. How far out of your way is it?"

Shepard's VI added a map overlay of the colony with their position and the hospital, and added the location of Powell's home based on a 411 query. It was on the same transit line, about two kilometers beyond where he would have changed over to another route.

"No…no, I can't. I just can't!"

Ash pulled her pistol off its holster by its body. "Maybe I can convince…"

"Let me do it, sir," Richard interrupted, "I know this colony. I know where Endo Memorial is, and I know alternate routes to get there. I'll drop Mister Nihlus off and meet you at the spaceport to pick up the beacon."

As Shepard's ARO map was updated with locations of firefights, he saw there were no known hazards on the path Richard would need to take. He frowned. "I don't like sending you off alone. But it looks like, with the capital ship gone, the rest of the invasion force is withdrawing to the spaceport again. I hope they didn't get the beacon on that ship and leave."

"They couldn't have," Ash waved an elbow towards Powell as she holstered her pistol, "He says they just left for the spaceport. They must have another ship. The big black one landed the invasion force and then bugged out."

"Too much time pressure here," Shepard pointed at Richard. "All right Jenkins, this is your home, and you know it better than I do. I want you to medevac Nihlus to Endo and meet us at the spaceport. Stay in touch. Text me updates at mode changes and remember: the best defense is to _not_ be where your enemy is shooting. Be safe." He extended a hand.

The young Corporal's confident smile ratcheted up another notch. "You bet, sir." He shook the Commander's hand enthusiastically, turned back to where Nihlus lay. "The hospital has its own station right on the line, so I'll meet you at the spaceport as soon as I can." He lifted the turian in a fireman's carry.

Shepard turned back to Powell, but the man had run off. _No battle plan has ever survived contact with the enemy_, Shepard thought. "All right, then. Williams, is the train going to be a problem?"

"Don't expect so, sir. It's a VI network with six nodes, thirty carts." She focused on the station depot. "Looks like they're a little heavy today with all the stuff they sent out to extract the beacon safely. The system might attach a few rider carts to—"

"Hostiles at the station!" Kaidan bolted to the left, "Get to cover!"

"Drones and troops!" Ash's pistol was instantly in hand; she snapped off three rounds before she got to cover. "Switch to charged rounds if you can!"

Richard jumped right, throwing Nihlus behind a crate before pulling his assault rifle off his SmartPak.

The geth android had swept a line of fire across the team and managed to hit only Shepard as he dove and rolled left.

While his shields began to recharge, Shepard gestured for full 6x acceleration, displayed an overhead view of the area, coordinating data from the other members of the fire team.

**Enemy drone down** showed on Shepard's ARO; Kaidan had shorted out the drone nearest him as Richard fired over the crate at the other.

"That geth mech is controlling the drones," Ash said, "Anybody got a clear shot?"

The remaining drone climbed high, firing a heavy incendiary down at Nihlus and Richard as it headed behind them.

"Rich!" Kaidan shouted.

"Uhh-!" was the only noise that came from the Corporal as the crates erupted in splinters and flames. A figure moved behind them, "Nihlus!"

Shepard's ARO showed biometrics: Jenkins was still alive and moving. "Williams, keep that geth pinned down!" He gestured for a tech relay, grabbed a finished one off his belt with his left hand, brought up his pistol in his right. Apparently Kaidan exploiting the shields of the first to short it out had given the second one a chance to reconfigure; its shields powered down as armor was extruded over critical systems. With his VI-assisted targeting showing him where the fabber heads were, he fired three precise shots, shooting the fabber off one side, and flung the relay toward it.

The now-unbalanced drone dropped and scooted left, fired off another incendiary at him as he rolled out of cover to a half wall, and activated the relay. The drone exploded in sparks and started to fall from the sky, aiming itself at Shepard.

"They're on the train!" Kaidan continued, "At least four more, and one of 'em is _huge_!"

Shepard leapt away from the wall as the orange-flaming wreckage crashed into it. Shrapnel pelted him, chipping and burning where it hit; as he was swatting the flames out on his right leg, gunfire erupted behind him.

His ARO window showed him what his team was seeing: Kaidan had lifted the geth from cover on the left and Ash had shotgunned it from the right. That left the ones that had commandeered the train.

"Jenkins, get me another recon drone. I need to see that train."

Kaidan switched his pistol to **Scope View** and aimed it over the balcony edge at the train. "They're just flattops, not covered cars," he said, "Can you see my scope view?"

Richard's omnitool whirred softly as it pushed out parts; he laid each aside as it was finished and started snapping them together with his right hand. "Chief, do you have some cells I can put in this thing?"

A digital whistle sounded from the platform. "_Attention. Train is now departing for EDPR spaceport_," announced a VI, "_Please stand clear of the gap_."

"They're taking the whole train," Ash yelled, "We'll never get another one back here. Get to the train as fast as you can!" She ran to the edge of the balcony, vaulted over it and out of sight.

"Williams, wait!" Shepard's call was too late; he ran back to where Richard was bent over the half-assembled drone. "Jenkins, forget the drone; get Nihlus down the ramp, footdrag, on the double!" He ran back to the balcony as the station VI started to complain about an obstruction preventing the train from leaving. "Alenko, can you see Williams?"

"She's holding the train by bridging the gap with her foot," Kaidan answered, "I can see the geth, and they're gonna be all over her!"

Shepard pulled his sniper rifle off his back. "Stop them! Protect her!" As Shepard's rifle was configuring itself, Kaidan popped up out of cover long enough to hurl a biotic bolt at the lead geth; it was thrown backwards into another; both crashed to the floor. Ash had her Banshee perched on the top of a half wall, and was looking through the sight with her ARO. She saw the sniper pop up and fire once; she squeezed the trigger, but the geth was already gone.

Blood spattered messily across one side of Ash's faceplate from the right as Kaidan rolled into cover next to her.

"Ah!" She glanced at him; Kaidan was clutching his right shoulder.

She fired again, but couldn't move to help him, "How bad?"

"I'm okay, I'm okay," he said, "Suit's got it under control." He stayed in cover, focused on his ARO. "Just give me a minute."

"Get down here, this train's really wanting to leave," Ash barked at the other two, "And the robots have probably figured out why it isn't!"

Shepard was at the bottom of the ramp, rifle up and watching the geth closest to Ash. "Jenkins, get stay in cover!" The two geth had already moved to opposite sides of the cart; the one nearest him leaned out, sighting down the side of the train at Ash. At 6x, it was easy to see the move before it was complete, so he stopped with both feet planted, sighted and fired.

In slow motion, he watched the shot appear to ricochet off the side wall in front of the geth, spraying shrapnel and acquiring a more lethal angle of attack. Apparently the geth were not armored underneath their curved heads; the camera appendage shattered, the geth thrashed briefly. The other geth stayed in cover as two more approached from the far end of the train.

"The train's moving!"

"They must be overriding it," Jenkins was struggling his way down the ramp with Nihlus in tow, "I'm comin' across as soon as I'm down there, cover me!"

The one oversized geth with black-and-yellow coloring was enormous; two pillar-like antennae were extended up from its back, an oversized rifle in its arms. It lumbered down the length of the train as if it didn't even care whether it was shot.

Shepard checked the battlefield with his left eye before scoping the camera of the big geth with his right; as the Destroyer geth brought its weapon to bear, Shepard quickly snapped off the shot without aiming carefully, and leapt towards the train for cover. His rifle protested an overheat warning.

Richard was adrenaline-pumped. "I'm at the base of the ramp! I need cover!"

The two smaller geth that had been behind the half-walls took up flanking positions, using the larger Destroyer unit as cover.

"Williams, you got a grenade launcher?" Kaidan spoke through clenched teeth.

She traded her rifle to her left hand and set it down as she drew the shotgun off her rear belt. "Grenade launcher ready," she pumped a grenade into firing position.

"Coordinate fire on the big one!" Kaidan rose, left hand extended, palm up, right hand in a fist; the geth seemed to tumble forward but did not fall. Engulfed in a purplish glow, the thing somersaulted through the air towards them in slow-motion.

Ash rose from cover, shotgun to shoulder. There was a _choonk_ as a line of smoke followed the thumb-sized explosive from weapon to target; she had fired it into an unarmored space where the geth's neck met its shoulder.

Orange light burst from the gaps in its armor as the μRPG detonated. Ash quickly pumped and fired another as Kaidan's other hand came up and he took a step forward, opening and extending his right hand toward the geth. The burning form exploded again and seemed to reverse direction, crushing the other two geth as it fell to the train floor.

Kaidan's move had required both hands, but his pistol was out immediately, "Cover fire!"

"Here I go!" Richard started across the platform backwards, dragging Nihlus.

Shepard's rifle had cooled; he sighted over the top of a service box at the back of the train, looking for the geth at the front.

Four geth sprang up, coordinating fire on Richard. Shepard fired on the one to the right, hoping to obscure the view of the others with resulting smoke, but the android simply fell backwards. Kaidan, carefully aiming his shots, fired twice, but put one round each straight into the camera eyes of two more before Ash's last grenade arced to the front of the train and detonated, hurling geth and debris into the air. The train crunched to a halt, and suddenly everything was silent.

Tiny dinks and plinks announced fragments landing. Smoke billowed from geth, train, and station, drifting east.

"I think we're good, Commander," Kaidan noted.

"'Good?'" Ash rose from cover, "Hah! We rock! Good work, team!" As she turned, she made eye contact with Shepard. "Sorry, sir. Hope I'm not stealing your thunder."

"No, it's all right, Chief. The mission comes before ego. Anybody else hurt?" Shepard turned, jogged toward the back of the train. "Jenkins, you okay?"

"Shields were almost useless," came the radioed reply. He sounded like he was in pain.

"Are you okay?"

"I think so. Am I bleeding?"

"Let me have a look. Alenko, Williams, get this train underway. Williams, get us to that spaceport."

Alenko turned and started off, "You got it."

Williams saluted Shepard's back, "Yessir."

Shepard started toward the back again, "All right, Jenkins…" As Richard came into view, his armor was smoking, but appeared to have done its job. "No blood, but you're gonna be sore and bruised tomorrow."

Richard emitted a whimper of a sigh and shook his head. "Great."

Shepard suppressed a laugh, made a fist and bopped the Corporal on the shoulder. "Hey, be proud. It's your first battle damage. Means I owe you a drink when we get back. And it beats the daylights out of being dead. Now you know why you have a PMA. Fire that thing up...use it. You can even configure it to start automatically."

"At least you're not having to drag _me_ around." Richard turned and looked at Nihlus. "So what do we have to do with _this_ guy?"

"You're going to drag him up to the front of the train while I find out why we're not moving yet." As if in response, the train lurched _backward_.

"Drag the Spectre to the front of the train, yes sir," Richard said, struggling to his feet. "So we're doing the work and he's sleeping through it all." He shook his head. "If that's what it takes, I wanna be a Spectre, too."

_Well, the spirit is willing, even if the flesh is well-pummelled_, Shepard thought. "Attaboy. Sing out if you need a hand." He turned to the front of the train, but continued to speak to the Corporal. "Also, save any reasonably intact geth tech that you can." Shepard touched his own back with his left hand, "And fab a new set of left back panels; you took some damage _here_. Keep an eye out for more geth."

"Yes, sir." Shepard could see the younger man speak to his suit VI, ordering it into sentry mode. He turned and walked to the front of the train, trading his sniper rifle for his pistol, and also setting his own suit to monitor for approaches.

Ash spoke over the 'comm, "Oh, that's just great. Sir, this might take a few minutes."

"What's the matter?" He began to jog to the front of the train, noting the articulated cars were segmented into ten-meter lengths that looked like they could be separated.

"The grenade…uh…broke the train. The Lieutenant and I are…working on it."

"Need any help?"

"Rrgghh…not yet, sir."

As he approached, he could see Kaidan using his biotics to lift the broken maglev cart off the track, but Ash was pushing it from the tracks with good old-fashioned muscle power. Once it was beyond her ability to push against anything, she backed away and Kaidan let it crash to the ground. He was breathing heavily.

Shepard nodded, patted the man's shoulder. "Nice work, Lieutenant. Fast, too. Get on the train and you can take five. Williams, how do we make this thing go?"

"Controls are on the lead cart…which can be any of them. If we're all aboard, just tell the VI to take us to the spaceport."

"If the cars can be driven independently, should we send a spare with Jenkins?"

"Good idea, sir." She looked quickly over her shoulder along the tracks as Shepard climbed a short service ladder to the deck level. "We should get going, though."

"Don't I know it." He waved his hand over the control board, illuminating the hologram. As Ash clambered up the ladder, Shepard nodded at the controls. "Well, at least it's self-explanatory. Jenkins?"

"Sir?"

"How you doing? Williams recommended we split the train and send you to the hospital. You know how to drive these things?"

"Sure…everybody does." Shepard's ARO showed and labelled a **Rear-view Mirror **overlay of the Corporal approaching from behind, dragging Nihlus. "But we should probably take a few cars each."

"All right then; get going." Shepard turned and started aft. "Alenko, Williams, with me. Jenkins, take the lead three cars for backup, and stay in touch. Let me know when you're on your way back to the spaceport."

"Yes, sir." Jenkins touched his PA control, and then the VI key on the panel. "Three cars to Endo Memorial."

"_Three cars to Endo Memorial_," said the train VI. There was a series of relay-like clicks from behind them. Lights on the walkway that ran continuously along the carts turned green on the three front carts, red flashed at the gap further back. "_Ready for departure_."

Shepard was already running back to the unlit car.

The digital whistle sounded again. "_Attention. 3-cart train north is now departing for Endo Memorial Hospital_," announced a VI, "_Please stand clear of the gap and the break_."

Richard tapped a key marked Emergency Departure.

An understated alarm sounded from the platform, and the Platform VI added, "_Warning: Departure expedited. Please stand clear_." As a new set of controls rose into place from under a panel at his feet, Shepard turned to see Kaidan and Ash standing behind him. The three lead carts slid forward about half a meter and then accelerated away from the station.

Shepard put his hand through the control space, activating the holographic interface, spun the Destination selector to **Douglas Interplanetary Spaceport**, and hit **Emergency Departure**.

**# # #**

Even with Sovereign gone, Saren could feel himself becoming anxious to leave. He bared his teeth, but with only cybernetics to move his jaw, there was no way for anyone else – not even the geth – to see that he had. He noticed in passing that this was a primitive response. _I should be above such things._

_Sovereign left without picking up the rest of the geth. I will not have room for them._

He shook his head. _I can get more geth_, he thought. _I must leave before I'm discovered._

He turned to the nearest geth, though his command would be seen by all of them. "There are four warheads aboard the _Invicta_," he pointed to his ship, "Disperse them, ten minute delay, and set the charges," he growled, "Destroy the entire colony. Leave no evidence that we were here."

The geth answered with electronic affirmatives, turned and walked off the loading platform toward the waiting pocket starship.

Saren walked east, looking across what was left of the spaceport. A lone human appeared at the top of the station access; the geth relayed the image to his ARO.

In one fluid motion, Saren turned, drew his sidearm, and fired one bullet into the forehead of the bewildered alien. Quivering, it stumbled back two steps, and collapsed.

As pairs of geth stepped out of his tiny ship, carrying the two-stage fusion weapons, Saren realized the geth would be useful for the last minutes of their existence, and nodded understanding that Sovereign had left them. He contracted what was left of his scarred fringe, and issued another order, "Defend the charges against the humans."

_No time left_, he thought. _If I am to get anything from this beacon, I must do it now and let it be destroyed. Sovereign cannot know, but neither will anyone else._

Sovereign had shown him much of what was known about the Protheans' technologies; their ability – even propensity – to detect chemistry in parts-per-trillion and extrapolate biology. Had things gone differently, they might have developed a highly compassionate culture. Neither outcome could have saved them.

_But I know how to use this device._

**_# # #_**

Buried after only a few centuries of use by the very people who had fashioned it, the beacon had lain inert for millennia.

For the days following its excavation, it had been gathering power through its photocollector. Automation inspected the various systems, repairing what it could, restoring basic functions. It ran self-checks, polled its long-dead network, found no other nodes. Many messages remained in its memory, but only one invoked all protocols of urgency.

When it detected a being stepping into its messaging zone, it emitted its protecting field, levitated the recipient, replayed its message.

It was the last time it would do so without failing.

**** Glossary ****

ACI: Alliance Colonial Installation

ARO: Augmented Reality Overlay

PMA: Pain Management Application (app)

μRPG (or uRPG): micro Rocket-Propelled Grenade


End file.
